Blood on the Moon
by Lydiby
Summary: Destiny does not care what path you take to reach her, only that the outcome be the same. Still humans & immortals try to defy her. Here begins a descent into the underground realm of vampires where the world will be lost or saved & nothing's normal.
1. midnight jam session

I can't believe I'm done writing this story; how long has it been? Now it's only a matter of posting the last few chapters. Thanks everyone for reading and being patient!

This is manga based, and is distorted enough that it combines Stars, Supers, and all. And yes the Starlights are female, (incognito male as in the manga). I don't know why I made Kakyuu a little girl, but I did, and that's a bazillion chapters away if you're reading this for the first time. I have taken many, many other liberties, but they will explain themselves I think. Usagi/Serena hasn't found all of the senshi and doesn't know she's the princess. I hope that covers it.

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter I

It was very late. Technically speaking, the park was closed, but it wasn't as if they had a way to lock people out. The stage was all mine, and the stars my only audience. I wistfully looked up at the sky, wishing I could see them, instead of the glow of inner city lights. Slowly warming up, an inward smile grew.

This was my privet midnight-be-damned jam session and the music was all in my head.

Despairing of my own klutziness and Mamoru's teasing I had begun ballet lessons in an effort to nullify his favorite target. Unbeknownst I began to do it for myself instead and fell in love with dancing for it's own sake. It had given me a focal point and although I still loathed school I began to put more effort into it. Dancing gave me more energy so I didn't always wind up sleeping on top of my math.

Visions of Julliard had danced in my head. The rejection letter very nearly crushed me, but I didn't give up. I qualified for the five-year program studying at Columbia University and Julliard for a bachelor's with a small scholarship.

'What ever happened to Mamoru?' A small forgotten part of my mind wondered about the guy who had unwittingly given me so much.

So here I was, early Saturday morning, giving myself a recital. It was a bit chilly for September so I didn't remove my black cut up sweatshirt and warm-ups. I pulled out all the tension and stress in me and stomped on it. All the acrimony of Julliard competition and all the murderously impossible classes at Columbia were pounded out.

The irony of Julliard was a slap in the face. It was possibly the most cultural and artistic school in the world and nowhere on earth would you find more savages and Brutuses. Life was a never-ending Greek tragedy. It was so ridiculous I could hardly help but laugh sometimes. Not everyone was egocentric, but with such limited space, the students operated by the law of the jungle.

By a fragile balance of diplomacy I managed no deep personal enemies. I kept my mouth shut and worked hard. While I was not top, I got respect. Once you got in, respect was a more powerful currency than talent, because it was earned rather than given. I was the unofficial ballet division peace ambassador, in a word: chaos. With the knowledge that we all came out better when everyone was on even terms, I drove the crew to avoid conflict when I could. Then I studied and studied and made jell-o. Or spaghetti. It was extremely nerve-racking. So I danced.

Venting my anger, stress and trying to fill something that was empty in spite of an overflowing schedule. Something that was empty. It burned a hole through me. There was nothing for it but to wait for him to show up. I didn't have time to look for him. As far as the destiny of it, if it were truly meant to be, I wouldn't have to look. Which sounded nice, but did little to stop the acid eating me inside. Besides, I had someone more important to be looking for anyway. Luna had reluctantly agreed with Mina and I that our Princess must be hiding herself from us for reasons we could not know. There were no other explanations. No cheerful ones at least, or cheerful by comparison, I suppose. Put in an understatement, the situation was discouraging. I pulled this out of me and let it float across the night air. I dragged everything out of myself until I was only left with the peace of solitude.

"Good morning."

I unceremoniously landed flat on my feet (which can be awkward) and brought my hand to my throat and shoulders exposed from the cut out neck. I sharply turned in the direction of a smooth male voice, fear skittering through my mind. I nervously recalled the knife at the small of my back, a gift from Topaz. She insisted that as long as I was her friend; I carry the unadorned, but silver-plated switchblade every time I left campus. Her vampire slaying bit was crazy, but she was a reliable friend—trustworthy if bizarre—so I let it slide with little comment. Being armed in a big city wasn't such a bad idea so I carried it with me most nights I went out alone. At least if you're going to bluff your way out of a situation flashing a blade is much more effective than a can of mace. Who runs from mace? A knife means business, and unpleasant business at that. Guns are another thing completely, in which case I'd be more than happy to throw my wallet one way and run the other. I grew up in a big city, a world away, but some things are the same wherever you go. Mostly, I avoided a place where these things might be an issue and that was the end of it. If you aren't looking for trouble it's really not that difficult to avoid.

Ordinarily.

'Augh, she's making me so paranoid with all that Buffy crap! I know youma, this is no youma.'

I tore my hand away from my throat, only to have it involuntarily slip behind my back. Shifting from the broach that was not there, to the knife. I stared through the shadows at the man, one coherent racing through my mind.

'He's not from Julliard.'

Which, admittedly, was about as coherent as it was helpful.

"Excuse me but I couldn't help but notice your dancing. It's very beautiful, but you really shouldn't be out here alone at this time of night," he said softly. In a flurry of fright, I tried to decide if there was any menace in his voice. I wasn't sure. There was some ulterior motive and I did not want the specifics.

"Would you join me for a cup of coffee?" He asked, gently. I took a few steps back to study what little I could distinguish carefully.

I shook my head. So coming out here late at night, in the dark, all alone wasn't exactly giving trouble a screaming-wide perimeter. I'd known that; now I regretted it. Exactly how late was it? I wondered. Dim light glinted off his wrist.

"Quarter 'til three."

"What?" I gasped out sharply.

"Quarter 'til three." He laughed, gently. I frowned at him and took a few more steps back, prepared to run.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, "I forgot, you never did like being laughed at, did you Usagi?"

"How the hell do you know my name?" I asked, tersely. I held the unopened knife in my hand at my side now. I shivered; the sweat had dried leaving my skin chilled and this was all too unreal.

"You don't know mine?" Before I could move he'd draped his coat about my shoulders. Something was so familiar about this man. My loosened muscles tensed. His jacket; it smelt like the ocean. I felt his gaze on me. Who was he? I couldn't see him. If I screwed up my sight I could see his eyes glimmering faintly.

Cerulean eyes laughed at me.

I blinked trying to get my eyes to focus again. Had that been a memory of, of someone else? Or were those his eyes? I took a step back uneasily, engulfing myself in the clean fresh salty scent of his coat. I knew that scent.

"Mamoru? Chiba Mamoru?"

There was a pause.

"I'm afraid not, I'm Darien Shields. Why don't you put Topaz's trinket away though."

"You know Topaz?" I shifted more uneasy than ever. He wasn't Mamoru, but he knew Topaz. This was taking an unpleasant and unnerving turn. I didn't understand.

"I wanted to meet you, she thought you might be here."

She was the only one who knew about my witching hour escapades. They made her act uneasy, but she partially encouraged them; Topaz could be so sphinx-like. But she never would have told this guy, not unless she completely and utterly trusted him, and even then! Topaz had some truly…peculiar friends, but this was not something she would do. I squinted at him, just a shadowy form.

"I'm sorry I bothered you. But this really isn't smart. You should know better. Please Usagi." His voice changed so suddenly from reprimanding to remorseful. What was going on here?

"What?"

"Be careful." He vanished…

Taking all my answers with him. Floored, I stood there for a long moment. Shivering terribly, I put my arms into the sleeves of his coat, took my toe shoes off and got back onto a well-lit street. I jogged to the nearest station and took the subway to the west side lair where I knew Topaz would be. I needed answers. Or at least explanations, or something, anything at all that might help me make sense out of this episode.

Straight out of the, (what was it called?) X Files! My roommate last year had been halfway to being obsessed with it. Come to think of it, I had met Topaz through her, and discovered that X File junkies and Buffy aficionados ranked among that circle's more, shall we say, normal types. While we're at it, I'll add that my first whopping dose of American culture had absolutely nothing to do with apple pie and barbeque. Topaz took pity on me after _that_. I'd never had trouble making friends before, but everything was so different and my English had always been wobbly. If it hadn't been for all my time spent training and fighting all those monsters as a senshi, I'd easily have sunk that first quarter.

Shangri La was and is one of the stranger clubs in New York and oddly enough one of the safest. Looking at it you'd suspect it was a hell's angels hole in the wall. Setting foot inside, if you had any sense at all you would run back out like you'd just killed a kingpin. Topaz said not having sense was one of my finer traits; I told her it would make a fine opening for my eulogy.

Twisting through the crowd, I waved to the owner who knew me as one of Topaz's friends. Then slipped underneath the bar top to climb up the spiral staircase to the more exclusive balcony.

"Topaz?" I called. She started and spun around fanning her mahogany hair out. A crowd of the clubs higher end patrons inhabited the more lounge-like setting that overlooked the dance floor below. What she did here I didn't know, and I didn't understand why she liked the place. I wasn't a clubbing sort of girl, and I didn't really think she was either. We didn't have time for it; we were trying to hold onto honors at Columbia!

"What brings you to the underworld?" Her amber eyes shimmered with laughter.

"This guy, Darien Shield showed-up-at-the-park, said he knew you, what-the-hell-is-going-on? I-was-freaking-out, I—"

"Whoa, Serena," she pressed a glass into my hands, "breath, take a drink, start at the beginning, slower and don't leave out anything."

I took a sip, choked and sprayed it out; it was cognac.

"Hey don't waste that! It's good stuff," she scolded, but I could tell she was worried. Personally, Topaz was reckless, but she had a don't-mess-with-my-crew attitude. One of many things that tended to get her into fights.

Anxious to know what was going on I told her everything. When I'd finished, she leaned back and gave me a wary look. Something I didn't like coming from her.

"You're not going to like what I've got to say," she murmured barely above the music coming from below.

"Tell me anyway," I growled, sardonically.

"We had a run-in earlier this evening," I stiffened, knowing what she really meant by 'run-in,' "he broke through my shields briefly, but I managed to head him off. Going after a friend was a bit lower than I expected from him, but evidently, he knows you. I doubt you'll see him again."

"Knows me? What do you mean?" I demanded.

"Powerful as he is, he's young," she replied. Topaz put it best simply and enigmatically.

"I don't understand," I grumbled.

"You will when you want to," she said, tiredly. This was an old discussion and we both agreed to differ so neither of us wanted to go into is again. Youma were the real thing, vampires were something off Halloween decorations. Topaz didn't know anything about youma so I often wondered what exactly it was she did, or maybe thought she did. In my experience Shinto priest had a limited amount of power that affected youma. So I was curious, if Topaz had no senshi powers, what did she have and what was she really fighting after all? I thought about the being I had spoken to in the park. There was no telling.

"Why don't you go home, Serena? There is a very small few who will touch you while wearing that jacket and the few won't be bothered."

I nodded, dismissing the tail end of her sentence as some unknown superstition and ducked out of the balcony. I went home to the dorms in Morningside Heights and slept it off.

The rest of my week was normal.

Briefly I toyed with the idea of contacting Luna, Artemis, and Mina, but brushed it aside. This wasn't normal. They couldn't provide enough force to be any help. I was truly hesitant to leave Tokyo utterly undefended for something I couldn't define. Youma were alien, invaders, foreign to earth. This (whatever 'this' was) had been here for—for a very long time. It was dark, bearing the signature of death, but was it evil? Was it real?

I shoved the jacket in the back of my closet and forgot about it. If Sailor Moon tried to defend NYC, she'd die of exhaustion. Tokyo only had one Scout in residence as it was.

I drilled endlessly with winter solos in mind. The lead would be great exposure for a place in a ballet company and the tension hadn't built up yet. When I wasn't practicing, I was in the Low Memorial Library trying to finish my term papers early. Besides all of this, after my encounter, Topaz decided I needed to learn how to knife fight, despite it being illegal. Topaz was never one for following rules that didn't suit her. She would have hauled me off to a shooting range if she could have found one either of us could afford. I got out of it whenever I could, which wasn't often.

The stress built until I found myself on stage on one considerably cooler evening. To my relief only my regular audience was in place. I pit stopped at my dorm to grab the bass guitar I had been messing around with since I had met Melinda. Still wearing my black dancing gear (layered camouflage) I took the sub. Tension drained, I meandered through the west side until I came to Broken Glass. Melinda was playing lead tonight and on open mic night a few of us jammed together. Truthfully, I wasn't any good, but I got a kick out of playing with them and they didn't mind. She gave me a hand up and I set up her sweet antique sunburst Gibson

Since I wasn't very good we stuck to uncomplicated (and usually old rock) songs and I followed Miki, who was the group's proper bassist. One song blended into the next and before I knew it Sweet Home Alabama had warped and she was belting out,

"Something's happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear, there's a man with a gun ova there, a-telling me, I got to beware, time children we stop, hey, what's that sound, everybody look what's goin' down…"

Unnerved by the lyrics (and the event they were based on) I left the responsibility in Miki's competent hands. I found a table, ordered a double caramel mocha and listened with my eyes easing shut.

The chair across me scrapped the floor. I snapped my eyes open into a pair brilliant green ones. I glared at him, hoping he would leave. He wore dark grey shirt with black pants, which did nothing for his bloodless complexion.

Bloodless complexion, those words echoed in my mind and I involuntarily shivered. His lips twitched into a smile, I sipped my coffee. His hair caught the light, blazing tawny. I folded my hands in my lap and stared into his emerald eyes, dazzled and dazed. Suddenly everyone else seemed half dead.

"I'm Devin," his voice had a charming ring to it. He grinned and I tore myself away from the explosive vivacity of his eyes.

"Well aren't you going to tell me your name?"

"Do you really need me to?" I snapped at this gorgeous stranger. Something about him jarred me, jarred me badly, maybe his cockiness. I didn't know; he was like a purified alkali metal. Dangerously cataclysmic with anything he came in to contact. I didn't like it.

"Temper, eh? Manners, my dear," he drawled.

"Why don't you leave," I snarled; it wasn't a question.

"Why don't you? Fine, fine." He sauntered away looking amused. I sat there for a while, but it was ruined. I downed my drink, tossed down a pile of change and stalked out. I walked down the street, tossing about the idea of hanging out with Topaz. In the end I dumped it in the gutter and stepped over it. Black combat boots would get you through anything.

Walking down an abandoned block, two precariously flickering streetlights gave their last flash and went out, throwing me into darkness. Cursing under my breath, I picked up the pace. I could see the subway entrance and just wanted to get home. Striding out of the darkness, I glanced around me. On the other side of the broken lights was a lurker. Hopefully a mugger; as strange as that may sound, my wallet was the nicest thing he could be after. And for all the cash it contained he was welcome to it.

As he stepped into the shadows I ducked into the conveniently located alley. Using the advantage of his undeveloped night vision to disappear. I pressed myself against the wall, holding the switchblade in my hand. Beside me, I could hear…something. I turned and could just make out two forms. My panicky breath caught in my throat. A guy with brilliant, even in the shadows, platinum hair was holding a girl against the wall. He was kissing her neck, but blood was running down from his lips. Before I knew what I was doing, the knife was against his ribs and I'd pressed the catch.

I'm not sure what happened after that.


	2. ethereal and mundane collision

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter II

I woke on a divan. The room was draped in dark curtains and the lamp cast a pink glow on the walls like bloody water. Diluted, it seemed to ripple through the air. Dizzily, I lurched to my feet, stumbling toward ornate double doors. Dazedly, I ran my hands over my clothes. What was I wearing? The black heels were what had caused me to stumble. I smoothed my hands over the beaded black satin. I was wearing a shimmering flapper's creation, only gothic. A spiked collar was strapped around my neck, with a teardrop shaped something resting at the hollow of my throat. Black spiked heels with winding belt buckling straps climbed up my calves in a punk mockery of the ribbon ties on toe shoes. Looking past the green tint and bubbles in the ancient heavy gold framed mirror I stared at myself. The teardrop glimmered darkly, I couldn't tell what color it was and thus what type of stone. My eyes flashed in a sinister way as I examined my scandalous ensemble and the seduction of the Gucci-like shoes. If the rock opera version of Dracula was made into a ballet…

What was going on? Was I dreaming? What the hell would posses me to wear something like this, even in a dream? I saw only two options, I could be frightened or…

Furious, I threw the 17th century French doors violently open and stepped through. Inhumanly gorgeous people filled the room, chatting demurely, and sipping drinks. There wasn't one glass that wasn't filled with dark crimson colored liquor, I noticed in detachment.

It was then I noticed my knife was gone.

No one even looked up. An arm linked through mine and with a start, I looked up. Violet eyes met mine with a superior gaze. Her brunette—no, not brunette, ebony hair fell about her shoulders as if to swallow her. Her inhumanly manicured fingers tapped melodically against the crystal glass of white wine as she pressed it into my free hand. Her vicious, yet elegant nails were done in red, but I doubt any woman hand ever worn red the way she did. The world copied her, the world tried desperately to be her, but we could never attain a level that was inhuman. Everything about her was enchanting, as if you hadn't been born until she saw and acknowledged you. It was a harsh feeling, like the painful relief of a first gasping breath after being held underwater for too long.

Evenly, I turned my fiercest look to her patronizing gaze. I wanted answers. Anger mounted into fury as she tipped her head back and flooded the room with her lovely laugh. I ripped my arm out of hers and stalked into another room. To my surprise no one followed. This room was just like the last, and so it went. I was walking about in circles. I was losing my bravado. Finally, I fled out onto an empty terrace and considered taking the three-story jump just to get out of this nightmare.

"Darien," the vixen purred, just inside the room, "how was I to know you had any claim on her? You did not make yourself clear. I can't keep them back now, now can I? They adore her already. What is it to you anyway? You can have her all to yourself once they've grown tired of her."

"If anything happens to her, I will be holding you responsible Rei," he growled.

They were talking about me. I knew it, that's all.

I _didn't_ know what to make of it. The figure stepped out on the terrace towards me. Throwing my untouched drink in his face, I vaulted over the rail. I let my body go slack in hopes of reducing damage. My body didn't hit. Not right away. Someone caught me. Immediately, I rolled out of, his grasp, landing with a—less painful—thud in the grass.

"Not smart Serena." I recognized his voice at once.

"How the hell did you get down here?" I glared up at him, but he didn't answer.

"So grown up, but so naïve," he whispered. His head was angled down, clearly stating he was looking at me, but I felt like he was speaking to himself. Dark hair tossed back and forth as he shook his head.

"I'm taking you home," he said pulling me up. I tore out of his grasp.

"No, you're going to answer me," I growled.

"Usagi," his voice was terse, but I refused to be daunted.

"Answer me! I want to know what the hell is going on!" I yelled, stamping my foot like a six year old. The heel dug into the ground and stuck. Irate, I tore it out with a substantial hunk of grass. I would never have worn shoes like this. What if I sprained my ankle? It would all be over then.

"You obviously aren't ready to know what's going on, child," he hissed in caustic Japanese, "everything is right in front of your eyes. When you're ready to stop denying it start wearing my jacket. I won't be responsible for you when you won't even acknowledge me."

He tightly grasped my forearm and the world disintegrated. When it pulled together again I pitched forward into my bed and knew nothing more.

"Serena? Serena?"

Someone shook my shoulder demanding I wake up. Subliminally, I pulled out one of my pillows and bashed my attacker over the head, hard.

Mornings never had, never would, be my specialty.

"Serena?" this time I noticed panic in the voice. It was Dena, my roommate.

"Whad'ya want Dena?" I moaned.

"You didn't come in last night, but you're here and…what are you wearing?"

"Whad'ya mean?" I pulled myself up. Beaded fringe slide across my thigh.

"Bloody hell!" I shouted.

"Hold still," Dena commanded, holding my chin up. She examined my eyes and then the inside of my arms.

"I'm calling Topaz."

"What?" I wailed. My maniac nightmare was running into daylight.

Topaz examined my pupils.

"Would someone mind tell me what the hell is going on?"

She leaned back on her heels and sighed uncertainly through her teeth.

"You will be safer wearing the jacket as often as possible. I don't know how much I can protect you. How satirical; it seems both of us care about you."

She walked out without another word.

Wrathful and frightened, I stormed out into the world to get caught in the rushing fury that was New York. I got caught in the flood until it outdid me and left me finding my feet in a Westside bookstore. Beads brushed my legs, and my awareness trailed down to the shoes again. Pulling my head out of The Count of Monte Cristo, I looked around me for the first time and wondered where the hell I was. The horror of not knowing was gone, but nothing filled it.

"Hullo."

Bewildered I turned into a dazzling figure.

"So we meet again."

I stared into haunting green eyes.

"What?" I breathed as fragmented memories flashed across my vision.

"Come now, you're a big girl. You can figure it out for yourself," he murmured.

"Met me at Flame at seven."

All afternoon I fidgeted. I fidgeted in the library, I fidgeted in the park, and I fidgeted in the practice room. Going to Flame was stupid. Unthinkably so, but I could not shake the desire to go. Flame was one of those exclusive clubs, with the long waiting lines and beefy bouncers; a waste of time. As defiance I wore jeans and a Columbia shirt, viciously shoving the dress and Gucci shoes back in the wardrobe. My eyes stung as I felt myself preparing to go; I didn't want to. I didn't even have my knife anymore. Frantically, I tore the coat off a hanger in my closet and stomped out of the dorm.

Flame was just a few blocks away when I pulled the jacket on. Inhaling the scent of the ocean stopped me dead in my tracks. Someone slammed into me and I automatically reached for my wallet; still there.

"Watch where you're going!" an angry man yelled.

"Sorry," I muttered. Laughter bubbling inside of me, I turned around to go home. I ducked my head for moment, fighting off a fresh batch of hysterics.

"Going somewhere?" his voice rumbled in his chest as my ear was pressed against it.

"Let go of me."

"Or what?"

"You heard her," the voice of the man I'd originally ran into snapped. My arm was pressed against something hard in the coat pocket, Topaz's knife. I pulled it out.

"Don't make me use this," I warned.

"Feisty," he laughed, mockingly.

"Or have you forgotten," I hissed, lowering myself into a fighter's stance. Memories of the alley swirled angrily in my mind. He had something to do with that freakish fiasco and vengeance was forward on my to-do list presently. He snarled and lunged painfully twisting my other wrist. The presumably homeless guy punched him in the jaw. His dirty blond hair hung in blue eyes that shone with rage, but also street smarts; a sound working knowledge of basic survival skills. He too, held a blade. Devin slammed him through a store window with a casual swat into his chest. Shattering glass filled my ears before a roaring sound as the back of his hand collided with my face. The world began to noticeably spin and then it all fell apart.

"This is better." His breath was cold against my ear. It was too dark to see anything, but I was lying on a couch. His lips against my neck made my skin crawl. The skin broke painfully, but I was too shocked to even react. Dizzily, I raised my hand to beat him off. A scream of pain rose to my lips as I realized it was broken. Engulfed in surrealistic agony my mind shook into pieces.

"Get off her!"

There was a dazzling flash.

Phones were ringing somewhere, far off, but constantly. Then there was a steady beeping and then, "Dr. James, to the ICU, please, Dr. James to the ICU."

Followed by the loathed smell of hospital. Finally my eyes opened, a thornless white rose rested on the blanket in front of me. My hand was folded around it. My other wrist was at my side in a cast. I pressed it to my nose to cover the awful smell. Questions gibbered to be answered.

The police officer was completely nonplussed at my slightly changed account. Standard drug tests had come back negative (of course) and there were plenty of cult freaks to go around.

All I had for answers was a hospital bill, a rose, and two puncture marks on the side of my neck.

Miserable, I pulled the jacket tighter around me. Walking through the slow rain. He was just like Mamoru. The bickering, the hair, but his eyes reminded me of Tuxedo Kamen. My walk slowed to a crawl as I remembered Mina, Luna and Artemis, left behind in Tokyo. My throat tightened painfully and my eyes stung with tears like they hadn't since the last battle with Beryl. When Ami-chan died.

Finding a bench I sat down and huddled into myself, flipping up the collar of the jacket. I hadn't been able to save her. Sailor Venus and Mercury were the only scouts Luna and I had ever found. We knew there were more, but we'd never managed to track them down.

Tuxedo Kamen vanished after the final battle. It hurt that I not only lost Ami-chan, but my hero abandoned me as well. But then we hadn't really needed him after that. Two scouts with two guardians were left; our minute force was reduced, and beyond the incalculable blow of losing a dear friend was the loss of an imperative ally.

Ami was the brilliance, the practicality that kept us grounded in the blackest of situations. We had been through much together. Without the other scouts we could only wonder about, we were horribly out numbered.

Yet after we defeated Beryl, no more enemies had come. The peace was strange, and laced with the pain of price, but gradually it settled. Mina-chan and I could almost live normal lives. Luna always warned us that it wasn't over. With Ami gone we'd been severely disabled, but Mina and I had struggled through it all. Both of us had decided to go to college, but Mina didn't want to leave home. When I got my acceptance form back, we'd created a transport device; if there was another attack, I could return to Tokyo instantly, but it could only be used in emergency.

I turned my eyes to the sky. I couldn't see the moon, but it brought one thought to my mind.

Our princess.

We'd never found her.

It hadn't been the hardest failure to bear. We'd done the best we could, but it hadn't been enough to find her and protect her. Abruptly, I was glad the high-rises and streetlights hid the beautiful satellite that had once been my home. Though I could not remember it, except in wisps of dreams and nightmares that burnt away faster than fog in morning light.

Standing, I punched the crosswalk button. Franticly, I wished I hadn't had to leave Luna behind. I missed them so much.

Sodden hair draped around my face. Now and then I still put it up in odangos, more often a bun, but I hadn't even a brush at the hospital. Listlessly, I walked across the street.

"Watch out!"

A warm force slammed into me and we both rolled across the pavement. The blare of a taxicab horn went doppler as it whizzed by drenching the both of us. I looked up into vibrant emerald eyes that studied me with concern.

"Are you alright? Make sure you watch where you're going, you could have been killed!" she scolded, "Those drivers are psycho!"

"Th-thank you," I stuttered, as I tried not to cry. She pulled me up and wrapped a protective arm around me tightly. Rain drummed gently on her rose patterned umbrella. Soft brown hair wisped out of her ponytail.

"Oh, is that yours?" her voice was low for a young woman, but smooth and pleasant. She bent and handed me the white rose. Its stem was broken, but it still smelled sweet and the petals remained smooth. My eyes flowed to her rose earrings.

"I love roses," her eyes shone with a kindness that reminded me of Ami. How she would always try to cheer Mina and me up when we were down. My depression double-folded.

"Come on now," she squeezed me gently, "why don't you come to my apartment? We'll dry off and I'll make you some tea. We can talk." Her eyes seemed so warm, if only they could warm the way I felt inside.

Kneeling at Makoto's table I was swamped in her soft violet robe. Laughing she rolled the sleeves up. It came down past my ankles.

"What part of Tokyo were you from Makoto?" I asked.

"Oh, I was hardly there long enough to begin calling it home. We lived there when I was very young, so I picked up most of the customs before we began to move. Going back was a sort of whim, but it didn't last long. Not many of my caprices do."

Makoto poured tea out of a beautiful hand painted teapot covered in pink roses. Her little studio was the coziest place I'd seen in a longtime. It was lovely to see Japanese furniture again. African violets and ferns lined the windowsills, along with a miniature pink rosebush. A picture of her parents sat of a small bedside by the futon. A beautiful quilt was draped over the back and a painted screen covered the back wall. It all smelt like roses. Makoto had trimmed the broken stem of my white rose and put it in a short vase.

"Here have some food too. Cooking for one is hard; I always have too much," she insisted. My eyes widened at the stunning array of food she placed in front of me. Rice balls, good noodles, curry, and everything I could only get at home or at super expensive exotic groceries.

We talked for a long time. Makoto never came out and said it, but I knew she was afraid I was suicidal. I reassured her as best I could, I really was only homesick. She even signed the cast on my wrist after blow-drying it, as it had gotten a little damp when she'd tackled me.

When I left she warned me to watch out, and told me to come back again whenever possible. I nodded dutifully and promised to send her tickets to our winter performance. In truth—though grateful—I didn't intend to stay in contact with her; her demeanor reminded me too much of Ami.


	3. red rush

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter III

As I stumbled upstairs back at Morningside Heights, I realized I forgotten the rose at Makoto's. I shrugged to myself, it was merely a flower, and it had only brought an aching remembrance of Tuxedo Kamen. Somehow though, I felt at loss. Often I wondered if he'd even survived the final battle. If perhaps he'd been vaporized by a blast, only leaving a shadow behind like in Hiroshima. Was no news good news? What could have been didn't even have the chance to be realized. He was gone.

"Serena!" Dena squawked in outraged worry.

"Dena please don't bother me," I moaned. I couldn't take a breath of wind at the moment. Dena, God bless her, saw this and dragged me into our dorm even though she'd obviously been leaving in a rush.

"Oh, Serena, what have you gotten yourself into?" she whispered, as she jammed me into bed, seeing the cast and bandages on my neck and from the Iv. She brewed some decaf herbal tea, told me to sleep and not move until she got home.

I was too tired to even think of protesting. Sleep had never sounded so good, even in geometry…

Shapes twisted from cheerful images into youma. I screamed, unable to do anything as they cut down my friends.

Jerking upright, I panted. Something tumbled down the coverlet; another white rose. 'White rose: purity of intent.'

My hand trembling I pressed it to my nose and inhaled the delicate scent of life. Trying to dispel the nightmare.

The problem was, my life had recently become a living nightmare.

The jacket was next to me on my pillow. On close inspection the black was truly inky blue. The smell of the ocean hung in the air, mingling with the rose scent. It made me want to walk on the beach and feel the sand between my toes, to laugh above the sound of surf and feel the warmth of the sun on my face.

Tucking the rose into the breast pocket, I swung out of bed. It was only eleven, Sunday morning; Dena wouldn't be back for hours. I could go out and be back before she even knew. Splashing my face with water before tying on a pair of cheap high top converse. I scrawled a note on the dry erase board incase Dena came to check on me at lunch.

Dena,

Gone to research at Low. May stop at studio. Will be back latest at six. Don't worry.

Love Sere

Jogging across campus, I felt a weight in my pocket that hadn't been there before. The knife had been mysteriously replaced, when it had been dropped two blocks away from Flame. Immediately, I pulled to a stop, but not fast enough to spare an innocent student bystander from becoming a victim of a —still lingering— klutz attack.

Three, two, one—wham!

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry!" I wailed, even as my own inertia sent me sprawling backwards.

"Just as soon as I think I'm growing out of being a human health hazard," I shook my head unable to go on as my throat coiled around suppressed tears. Scrambling on all fours to help gather scattered books, papers, pens, and disks, I shook the old habit off. Pulling it all together, I repentantly offered it, like a sacrifice, still on my knees. My first impression was the deep midnight blue suit, shot with silver pinstripes. A sudden wind gusted, thrashing my hair in my face, but not before I saw vibrant aqua eyes glimmer. The heavy books were lifted and the person spun on heel, quickly gliding away. Thrusting my hair back, I thought I saw a strand of blue hair that had sprung out from beneath the figure's navy beret.

'Ami!' my mind screamed.

Heedlessly, I turned and lunched myself back the way I'd came. Stumbling, I dragged myself back into Morningside Heights. In bed I pulled my knees up to my chest, beneath the luminous yellow sheets that smelt like sunshine. I sobbed until I slept.

When I woke a third white rose greeted me. Quietly, I considered the time in Japan. It was half past four here; it would be…about six am in Tokyo? At least she'd be home. The money for the call was nonexistent, but I picked up the receiver anyway.

"Mina-chan?" I questioned as the operator had indicated the connection was made.

"Usagi?" a dearly familiar voice returned.

"Kami, you have no idea how good it is to here that again," I breathed unreservedly. Serena was an America name Dena had given me and it stuck with all my other American friends. It was pleasant sounding, and I like well enough, but in truth preferred Usagi.

"What's wrong," Mina cut to the quick, hearing innuendos in my voice.

"Everything. Some kind of—of shuten-doji, has been stalking me."

"What? A vampire?" she gasped, sounding every inch the astonished New Yorka.

"Well, that would explain the two puncture marks on the side of my neck and the three pint blood transfusion," I wearily snapped.

"Usagi! Kami, are you alright?"

"He broke my wrist and beyond being incredible confused by what's going on…I thought I saw Ami today, Mina," my voice had dropped to a whisper as I remembered what I'd seen. Suddenly it had occurred to me that the suit had been princess cut, making the person wearing it definitely female.

"I don't think I'm alright Mina. I want to come home. I can't get a decent part in the winter performance with my wrist. I don't understand anything here. Nothing's an obvious youma here, I don't know what to do, Mina-chan. I don't have any money for this call either. I just needed to hear your voice."

"Don't worry about the money, Usa. I'll take the bill," she scolded, "You tell me everything, and I mean everything. Don't think you can hide anything from V babe, just because you haven't seen her in a few months. I know you better than you do, Usa."

Serenity washed through me at the familiarity of the scenario. The story wasn't the long-standing gossip like usual, but we hadn't talked in long enough that it didn't matter.

Mina kept drawing back to mysterious Mr. Darien Shields. Said he reminded her of Tuxedo Kamen in the early days, when we were really uncertain. But I had never been uncertain about my Tuxedo Kamen's loyalty like I was uncertain about Shields. This brought a brief but awkward silence. The memory of Tuxedo Kamen knotted in my throat. Luna and Artemis however opportunely arrived home from a night's scouting to break it. Luna told me to stay away from Devin and Darien. She'd get me a new morphing pen as soon as possible so I could protect myself. With sound advice from Luna, and Artemis and Mina's love, we hung up before the bill got any longer.

I erased the board and took a long, hot shower.

The next day Dena brought me Americanized Chinese food. While we chatted and ate, I glanced over my notes from class again.

"Sere, this came in the mail for you," Dena pulled her face out of her shrimp egg foo young to hand me an envelope. That made me remember again. How was I going to pay the hospital bill? The elation I'd felt from talking with Mina, Luna and Artemis deflated faster than a leaky tire.

Anxiously I tore the envelope open.

It was the hospital bill; I scanned down it, astonished at the early arrival. Surmounting that shock was the bill's final balance: 0.00.

Someone had paid for me. Thoughts tumbled through my mind in rapid succession. Standing my hand unconsciously landed on the jacket.

"Dena, I'm going to the hospital to see if I can figure this out," I murmured, swinging into the coat.

"You're leaving good food! Can't it wait?" she yelled in protest, as I ran down the hall.

"No really!" I shouted over my shoulder.

The night air had a bite in it. I recoiled from the irony in my own observation. Buttoning up the front, I turned for the nearest metro. Time was New York at night didn't even faze me, but now it took effort not the twitch at normal sounds. I strode down the block, trying not to let it show, even though I felt like shaking to pieces. I had to figure this out before I went mad. If I weren't mad already, which was not to be knocked out of the equation. I jammed my good hand into a pocket and dragged in a long slow breath to clear my head.

"Listen! I need a receipt for my health insurance company claim, I need the credit card number on it," I shouted at the secretary. She was a particularly prissy secretary who'd been trying her best to ignore me for the past thirty minutes via headset, computer and a steady stream of nurses and doctors. I waved the balance sheet between her and the monitor screen. Irked, she snatched it with her ugly turquoise manicured fingers and spun around in her chair. She typed wrathfully for a moment and then handed me a printout. Quickly scanning it, I found the numbers I wanted.

Stepping out onto the chaotic street, a gust hit me, swirling the coat and my hair behind me. Tipping my head back, I reveled in it for a moment. Then the icy ambiance hit my lungs and my clumsy fingers fumbled with the buttons. Only then I realized I didn't have fare for the ride home. I had run out the door without even my wallet. Down the street, I ducked into an Irish-fashioned pub. It was a long walk home. Cheerful chatter thawed my frosty ears.

I hesitated not wanting to be noticed since I couldn't purchase anything.

"Kan I help ye?"

Trying out my acting skills I reached into my pocket and made a face.

"I've left my wallet," I said grimacing. The weather-faced bartender looked at me hard for a minute and I prepared to duck outside again. Then he shook his head and beamed.

"Here ye are, lass, the bill's on the house," he said a moment later. His brogue was evident while the clink of the mug was lost beneath conversation. Surprised, I looked into his benign blue eyes and he poured my coffee.

"Thank you," I murmured. Quietly, I mused over the drink. Why on earth would my drink be free? No one could anticipate my coming here, so no real worry of the shuten-doji. I toyed with the idea of simply having becoming a magnet for bad luck. After what I'd been through already, I found I didn't really care. More importantly, how was I going get the account information of the credit card?

"I told you I'd give you some answers. You deserve to know what's going on, but only if you promise me you will stay out of this. I won't be responsible for you," a quiet voice flowed smoothly from beside me.

"Damn right and hell no," I stated simply and with an odd eloquence.

"Do you promise to stay out of this?" I studied the panther-like man whom I deeply suspected of being one Chiba Mamoru.

"I will endeavor," was the best I could offer. I was a sailor scout after all. Once the pen arrived I was expect to help who I could. If that happened to involve saving someone from a vampire, I wouldn't walk by.

A cool hand tipped my chin towards him. For a moment, the way he looked I thought he was going to kiss me, but that thought become evanescent as his indigo eyes engulfed me. For a moment, I simply _was._ It was sheer ecstasy. Then he broke the contact and my hellhounds nipped at my heels again.

"Very well," his voice held a glacial tenor that penetrated to the bone, "I was the Chiba Mamoru you once knew."

"Was?" I said faintly. Staring at him; how was he so different? He ignored my comment.

"I am now the vampire Darien Shields you do not know. Nor will you. As I've said before, I will not be responsible for you and association will only get you killed. Devin is an annoyance to Rei, so she was delighted at your temerity and decided to adopt you into as a 'fleur'. However…" he trailed off slightly, "complications arose. Devin, does not gracefully handle losing his prey, so he maladroitly and crudely seduced you."

Blinking, I knuckled my eyes fearful they would fall out. He expected me to believe that?

"So tell me again why you did all of that for me when you won't be held responsible?" I murmured, feeling an eyebrow arch.

Blazing, he turned to face me, and it was a struggle to keep the awe off my face. He was transcendent and stunningly elegant.

"You were confused by my former identity. It was not your fault, but from here on out it is. You've been given more of a chance than most humans. Stay out of this. Goodbye Usagi."

He flickered and was gone.

I slammed my fist on the counter top and slowly tipped over to rest my forehead on the bar. What had I done to deserve this? My arch nemesis was a vampire. A vampire, who out of some lingering sense of honor had saved my life, but brusquely downplayed it and left. What was my life turning into?

"Oh Ami-chan, Mina-chan, what am I going to do?" I whispered.

"Lass?" a bartender's brogue was soothing and hesitant, "ye alright?"

"No, not really," I replied. Dully lifting my head to look at him.

He sighed and studied me for a moment.

"Lass, he's only harsh because he's lost so much. It'ain't easy coming inta what he has. Just brush it t'off child and go back ta what yur life was. Take a cab and go home, sleep it t'off. T'is only a nightmare." He tucked a wad of cash in my hand and nudged me out the door. I took the advice without questioning whom and where it came from.


	4. anarchy

Blood on the Moon  
by Lydiby

Chapter IV

Bleakness crept in with third quarter. I'd been excluded from the Holiday performances because of my injury. Given I was a sophomore, but you couldn't get enough exposure.

It was just as well. Sailor Moon had no relief. New York was simply too big; I had to limit myself to what I came across by chance. A dead Sailor Moon was good to no one, and I didn't want anyone to know she was in town. Publicity would go straight back to any lingering enemies.

I was beginning to reassess my dream of becoming a dancer. How could I when I was Sailor Moon? But how could Sailor Moon make a living? I needed a pragmatic degree and a part time job.

Massaging my temples I looked at the course book. How was I going to do this?

"Sere, life! You look downright stoned." Surprised I looked up into Topaz's honey eyes. When had she come in?

"I've just got a headache, Topazi," I murmured dejectedly glancing down at the book again.

"Oh Sere, you take everything so seriously. You're unrecognizable as the cheerful effervescent girl who arrived a year and a half ago. Hold out your arm," she commanded.

"What?" I breathed at her irrelevant command.

She straightened it out and began probing.

"Ouch, Topaz!" I whined as she relentlessly massaged on a tender spot.

"Inside your elbow there's a pressure point that will get rid of your headache. You're coming out with me tonight. No more brooding. You need to lighten up, girl-child."

I stared at her, but almost immediately the headache began to lift.

"Now come on, we'll find you something to wear." She imperially rose from her seat on my futon and threw open the doors of the small built-in wardrobe. She chucked out tops, skirts, dresses, pant until still sitting on my futon I was buried up to my waist. Hanging on the door was a clingy red tank to be worn under a tight black long sleeve shirt with jagged slashes in it to expose bits of skin and teal. She was in hunt of a skirt when she froze. Slowly she pulled her submerged head out of the closet. Turning she gave me a perturbing look. With a reluctant air she pulled a hanger out. It was Mamoru—no it was Darien's jacket.

"You still have this?" She held it slightly away, grasping the hook between three fingers.

"Evidement," I murmured, glancing away. Why did she care anyway? Candidly, I had forgotten about that whole episode. I didn't have time or energy to think of it, and for once, ignoring it seemed to make the problem go away.

"Don't get French with me, Sere."

"You mean 'fresh' with you? I said 'obviously,' Topazi," I muttered, "I don't know, I just jammed it in there and forgot about it. Why do you care?"

"It…was just unsettling. I'm not accustomed to having my two lives bridged. With the Argents, we all know tonight might be it. We're ready, but when we do come home in the morning everything is normal, human, mundane and that's the way it's supposed to be. It's queerly funny, you've got monster auroras in you're closet."

"Monster auroras in my closet," I repeated and then guffawed.

"Still, it would be a shame to waste those shoes." She clucked raising the Gucci's out of a magnitude of random objects on the floor. She raised them up to eye level and glared at them.

"Topaz, I'll break and ankle if I'm lucky and two if I'm not!"

"Nonsense, I can get the Rei off these in no time. Get dressed." She threw a long jean skirt with knee high side slits, paint, fray and random rhinestones at me and ducked out of the dorm.

Changed, I dashed across the landing in into Topaz's dorm. She shared it with a girl named Brook, who was also an art major, though her parents thought she was studying law. Their combined talent turned limited space into something unheard of. They'd tacked canvases across the walls and painted murals of a bohemian street, a Japanese sunrise, and Brook's rather abstract interpretation of aurora borealis. Which was what she claimed had inspired her to become an artist rather than follow her parents' beck and call.

From the ceiling draped a large piece of fishnet. In one corner a potted ivy plant had been induced to grow upon it. All across brightly colored glass and metal charms were suspended to catch the sunlight and toss it about the room. A rainbow of haphazard glass vases crowded the windowsills and the window seat was covered in an African tapestry blanket.

"Sere!" Brook greeted me with a smile, "have a cup of tea. Topaz will be done in a moment."

She pressed a stunningly originally hand painted cup into my hands that appeared Mexican, if it wasn't one of her own. A soft herbal scent rose with the steam, soothing a diffident return of my headache.

"Thanks," I replied, before taking a long draft.

The afternoon light was quickly fading away into an astringent night. Topaz's stride swaggered as she entered the room, looking cocky in her classic Chinese-cut blue silk top and fitted jeans.

"Here you go," she chirruped, happily depositing the shoes in my lap, "you can barrow my mac to keep your legs warm."

"Your mac," I breathed in awe. All protestation immediately drained out of me. Her mac was one of a kind. She'd found a white one in a thrift store and gotten a brilliantly imaginative idea. Topaz had painted ferny fronds swirling all across it. It was positively sublime. Unconsciously my fingers had done up the straps and buckles and Topaz dragged me out the door.

Listlessly, I slouched on a stool at a table in the corner. Every now and then I spotted Topaz in the crowd below. I shrunk into whatever shadows I could; in a moment she'd come looking for me. Clubbing just wasn't my idea of a good time. Her surreal topaz eyes flashed in a strobe light as she spotted me. Soundlessly, I sighed to myself. When I looked up again she was gone.

"Topaz?" I whispered; she couldn't hear me if I shouted. Standing on the footrest I still couldn't find her. Jumping down, I jogged around the dining area rail.

As I reached the few short steps to the dance floor it all went wrong. People began to scream though it was impossible to tell why. Masses began to shove for the exits. The pulsing base beat through the floor.

Two figures stood alone on a growing empty space of black floor. Another was sprawled on the ground. Rubbing my eyes, I stumbled forward, pushing through people. There were only two, one had fallen and the other was kneeling over the sprawled out person.

"Topaz!" I screamed as I recognized her shirt and rich mahogany hair. Her skin was transparently pale contrasting horribly against something dark running down her neck, blood. Darien in a dark mac was leaning over her. As I clumsily tried to run forward he raised her head and pressed the inside of his wrist to her mouth. Finally, I broke free of the crowd and reached them.

"What are you doing?" I screamed, part in panic and part in outrage. In another flash of the strobe he had raised his head with a surprised look in his eyes that was out of place on his features. Before he could do or say anything I unthinkingly jumped him. Wildly, I pounded him with my fists as hard as I could, but he didn't yield, at all.

"Usagi, stop it," he commanded, grasping one wrist tightly he pulled me to the side. I shivered as something sticky dripped onto my skin. With a warning squeeze he released me and turned back to Topaz's limp form. She gave an agonized moan and stirred as he lifted her.

"Follow me," Darien coldly told me. We went out a side fire exit where a black limo was parked.

"Get in."

Mindlessly, I did as he said. The interior was black, with the exception of a crystal vase of red roses on the black marble bar. Lightly, he deposited her on the seat next to me.

"What have you done to my friend?" I breathed, staring at her ashen form.

"I have saved her from eternal sleep because you value her greatly, do you not?"

"You killed her!" I accused, but I was past screaming and raving. My voice quietly shook in a rage that was more than fatal. No, I'd had enough of losing friends. He would pay. On my own sweet time he would pay.

"She was already dead," he soullessly countered, "I will leave her with you, but I warn you she will be hungry when she wakes. You will need me to control her, unless you'd care to repeat your experience of a few months ago."

I drew back into myself. This man was colder and more cutting than Chiba Mamoru had been capable.

My beautiful friend; she had become what she had destroyed. Now she looked like one of those creatures I'd seen in that mansion so long ago. Her art had been life and she'd lived to create and protect it. Now she was dead and death could create only more death and pain.

Drawing my knees up to my chest, I clasped one frigid pallid hand of hers to my cheek and wept as we drove back to Morningside Heights. Head down, I followed silently as he carried her up the stairs, like a mourner in a procession. He didn't ask which room was hers. He somehow knew on his own which at any other time would have disturbed me. Brook was out, thankfully. He put her down and slowly turned to face me.

"I see, perhaps, why you mourn her death, but you do not understand death."

"No, it is you who does not understand death. You do not understand what it means to be left behind in despair," I bitterly retorted.

His eyes darkened.

"Once, I was foolish like you, but I am no longer. Death is but a state of mind."

"To you," I whispered, at loss. Her form was limp. Sinking slowly onto the window seat I clutched a bright green velour pillow and toyed listlessly with the diversely textured threads in the African blanket beneath me. Darien leaned against the Japanese sunrise wall and did not move. At four Topaz stirred. The salt had long since crusted upon my cheeks.

"Usagi, get behind me," Darien ordered. He stood next to me, but had not visibly moved. Dazed, I blinked and he easily grasped my shoulders and tugged me behind him. A feral noise erupted from in front of him. Slowly, she released a deep hissing breath. My skin prickled and lightning danced down my spine. Then the noise was behind me; I spun around in terror. Nails raked across my face and an arm around my waist lifted me out of harm's way.

"This was stupid. If I'd had more time for thought I would not have acted so rashly," Darien growled. His voice rumbled in his chest. Slipping in front of me he grabbed Topaz's wrist and they vanished.

Sinking onto her bed, I fell asleep, unable to shake my haunting last view of her.

Topaz hungrily stared at me with eyes that had become black.

'Sere, I'm sorry. I'm leaving you now,' a soft whisper coiled into my half woken mind. Something cool, damp, and rough brushed my cheek. My sleep became deeper and the dreams stranger.

Waking brought knowledge of mind shields and a sort of vampire code that I found difficult to grasp. My cheek had discreetly scarred. The room was undisturbed, but I knew she would not be coming back again.


	5. azure anger

Blood on the Moon  
By Lydiby  
Chapter V

Lethargically, I sat in the pew long after everyone had left for the wake. The police force had found her blood all over the club floor. Far too much blood for anyone to survive without a transfusion. I stared up at the intricately decorated alter and wondered that things like this could happen. There was no way I could face her mother again. So I sat there.

"Usagi, I'm sorry I was so callus. I didn't mean to be so cold to you. I _never_ meant to be," Darien said, his voice held more emotion in it than I'd heard yet. For a moment it was like one of the rare conversations I'd had with Mamoru. I didn't turn around to see him sitting behind me and destroy the illusion.

"I thought vampires couldn't come in churches." I avoided a relevant reply.

"Most people think we can't go out in sunlight either," he returned, casually.

A silence filled the cavernous sanctuary. I had nothing to say, who was he to offer condolences? He'd killed her! What, was I supposed to cry on his shoulder now? Even as a vampire he was a portentous jerk, and a portentous murderer too. What was I supposed to do?

My eyes stung like wind driven rain against skin and my throat ached, tightening as if a slipknot was closing about my neck.

"Just leave me alone. I have enough to deal with," I gasped out and twisted around.

More stunning than anything else so far were the bloody tears soundlessly slipping down his cheeks. Frozen in every respect, I merely stared at him. I saw a little boy that had been long, long lost and more pain than anyone one could bear, but also a glacier. Then my brief insight was gone and with it went an impulse to give a benediction of forgiveness.

"Leave."

Simple, a whisper that rustled years of dust hidden on archways and plaster ornaments; contained more force than twelve times the decibel. It contained the force to make a vampire leave.

Fervently, I prayed it would be the last time our paths would cross lest I became a murderer, like him.

Aimless, I wondered up and down streets. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. I felt bleached and frayed around the edges. After an hour or two of simply walking, I drifted into a Starbucks. For no other reason than to inhale a scent that reeked of life, for something that would make me feel tangible again.

"Usagi-chan, please talk to me," a voice flowed like water, washing away the poison of the English language.

My senses were still dulled and looking up I hardly registered what I saw.

"Ami?" I breathed. Aqua eyes glowed with concern, azure hair cascading over her shoulders as she leaned forward. Behind the classy dark frames her brilliant eyes were ringed in black. Frowning at me she reached forward to raise my chin. Terrified, I jerked back, unsure of her existence and what I was seeing. A hurt expression rose in the pools.

"Please don't touch me Ami-chan, if you are not real I'd rather not know," I murmured hastily.

"I'm not going anywhere until you're ready, but as you wish."

She dropped gracefully into the chair across from me. Her hair was long now; the sides tied back. Letting the rest hang lose. I flickered over the changes, for the most part subtle. Ami had been pretty, now she was vibrantly gorgeous in a way that makeup had no part in. A French blue collar opened at her pale throat contrasting against the black v-neck sweater. She was sharp and timeless.

"You're dead," I numbly stated.

"Sometimes death doesn't matter, Usagi. It depends on how you look at it. Being dead does not mean you are gone. It is just another change that is part of life." A faint sad smile spread across her face.

"I don't understand," I muttered.

"After the battle," she hesitated, "I was changed."

"What do you mean changed?" I asked, slowly.

"The Terran vampire clan adopted me and though I died, saved me from the final sleep," she returned, speaking equally slowly for clarity.

"Usagi, I'm not sure what's going on right now, but threads of fate are coming together again. We will still find the princess; we will still fulfill our duties. The path is different, but the destiny is the same."

"Ami-chan, Mina and I have barely survived without you. How am I to manage here on my own? You've got to help us," I pleaded.

"My part in this has changed," she shook her head, "You, Usagi are the lead in this waltz of fate. When the light is revealed, the rest will follow. The Crystal will guide you to the Princess's heart. Don't worry Usagi, you will know. A dancer must learn to cue from the innuendos of the music. Listen and you will hear."

"You have too much faith in me Ami," I said, hopelessly, "I'm a klutz, I'll trip the whole thing up and fail Her."

"I have to, since you won't have any faith in yourself," she mock retorted. I favored her a weak smile.

"I have to go Usagi. We will meet again, be of good courage, Usagi-chan."

Her eyes shone with kindness as she stood, kissed my forehead, bowed, and left. I watched her walk down the street, feeling immeasurably better. Ami glided through the crowds with a liquid poise. I sat there until I couldn't see her anymore.


	6. storm: prelude to a battle

Blood on the Moon By Lydiby Chapter VI 

Makoto had caught up with me. It was peculiar how even when I tried we couldn't be pulled apart.

She'd seen posters on construction walls for a classical Japanese display at the Met that was touring the major museums and run me to the ground. Makoto had even got dinner tickets for the gallery opening night and refused to tell me how. It was ridiculously expensive, ladies in commissioned gowns from designers with loans from Tiffany's and Cartier's, the men in genuine Armani.

Gazing around at New York's 'Ton' I wondered just what the hell I was doing here. Even in an elegant white and black satin sensation that she had hemmed and taken in for me, I felt shabby. Makoto however looked at ease. Slipping in and out of majestic clusters she left genuine smiles and a fresh breeze of laughter in her wake. In emerald jewel tones she was élan enough to distract an art-crazed crowd from the scent of fresh oils. I was more than a little floored; '_a studio apartment and she can afford all this?_'

Wandering a bit I came across Rain Shower on the Ohashi Bridge. It was slightly humorous in a detached sort of way. People ran to get out of the rain, not matter when, no matter where. Some things just don't change. Bored with that, I continued down a row of landscapes. The thing about Japanese landscapes is they tell a story if you look close enough, usually a romance or a tragedy such as washed out bridges, suggesting a devastating flood. But appreciation of that kind of detail required a devotion bordering on obsession.

Then I found a collection of Hokusai's Thirty-six views of Mt. Fuji.

'_Who would bother to spend that much time painting a big rock?'_ I wondered, but then it reminded me of home and I found myself slowly moving up and down the displays. Looking at them, Mt. Fuji always seemed to be tucked away somewhere in the background. I decided I liked The Wave best. It made me think that it wasn't always your fault when things went wrong. You can't always control things.

Notwithstanding, it was duller than dirt. I felt like I was sleepwalking as I made my way to a table of refreshments. I ordered a gin and tonic, found an empty bar stool and lounged.

Darks eyes flashed a subtle deep violet in light. I stared; it was Rei. She wore a simple royal blue camisole and grey pants. The bizarre abduction, the Gucci shoes, the party; all incoherently ran through my mind at once. First she mouthed something that could only have been obscene and then she smiled. The canines made it vicious, but it was not malevolent.

"You are the only similarity in taste my brother and I have ever shared," she casually drawled.

I had no idea what to say to that! So I didn't say anything at all. After a moment's thought, I took it to mean that her brother wasn't here, whoever _he_ was. All in all, I decided that was a good thing. A very good thing.

"I must admit our rough start was due entirely to me," her eyelids hooded her eyes in a feline manner. "I'm used to taking whatever I want without ever thinking twice," she shrugged blandly, "Papa spoiled me."

Gradually it dawned on me that this was an apology—an apology for Rei. But I still didn't know how to respond so I merely nodded and opened my hands. Hoping the gesture looked polite.

She laughed melodiously, making the occupants of the hall hold their breath for a split second.

"You are charming, aren't you?" She smiled again and I noticed how her glass somehow always had as much in it as before she brought it to her lips, which were a scandalous shade of scarlet.

"It's easy to see why he's so taken with you," she continued.

"W-what?" I stuttered, startled into words.

"Rei! You've met Serena!" Makoto burst in, completely oblivious to any overtones.

"I thought it was Usagi."

"Serena in America, Usagi in Japan," I managed.

In the silence that followed Makoto noticed the 'still waters.'

Frowning, Makoto murmured, "I didn't know that."

I shrugged, by now the 'conversation' had ground past any hope of being restarted. Rei referenced a prior claim on the rest of her evening and made her exit, but not before telling me I'd see her again. I didn't know whether to be flattered or wet myself.

"That's a shame," Makoto sighed, watching Rei's retreating figure, "I hoped you would get to know each other better. She's quite a wit, helps the time pass quicker when the crowd's a drag."

Raising my glass I nodded, I wasn't going to lie and say I wished she had stayed. Her very charisma was power that distorted the natural atmosphere. It made me edgy. After all, who knew what her intent was?

"How long have you known her?" I offhandedly inquired. I wanted to know if I was being watched.

"Uh, two years? Amazing woman really. We've had a few drinks over ex-boyfriends and she has taken some shit you wouldn't believe, but," she grinned deviously, "she knows exactly where to hit 'em every time. If you ever need to get even with someone, she's the one to go to. Rei helped me pull a few stunts of my own." Makoto finished with a silly grin on her face that meant she was remembering something.

So much for that theory.

"Is this about wrapped up then?" I tried to be subtle, but I'd just about had it.

"Oh," she looked at me like she was seeing me for the first time, "just about, I'd say. You wanna go for burgers and a shake?"

"In this?" incredulous, I asked.

"Why not?"

"Alright then."

The waiter thought we were crazy. We laughed at all the looks we got.

Retrospectively, I should have laughed harder.

This thought came as I clubbed a mugger over the head, or rather Sailor Moon did. It was two in the morning, a Thursday morning might I add. During which I had been frantically cramming for finals when this lout of a crack head hard up for cash had distracted me. The lighting was dim, but adequate so this one must've been really desperate.

"Go sniff a sharpie," I muttered disdainfully as he dropped unconscious. For good measure, (and interrupting my studies) I kicked him a few times. The poor bloke who'd been out later than was good for him was fumbling with his cell phone. His wavy dark hair tossed back as he looked up at me.

"Bloody hell!" he shouted.

This was, to say the least, not quite what I'd expected. But I didn't expect the hit of Nephrite déjà vu I got from looking into his eyes either. Thus I did the only sensible thing. Turned around and ran.

'_What is going on? Nephrite is dead. I killed him myself! Dead men walking, dead women for that matter, finals and here goes my head spinning like an old carnival ride_,' I moaned to myself. Jumping on top the dorm rooftop, out of sight, I untransformed and climbed down the fire escape to my window again. This was getting old.

Flopping back down on my bed, I listlessly tapped my pencil on a notebook. Just as I was slipping back into formulas a stray thought hit me like a frying pan in a bad comedy.

The homeless guy who stuck up for me against Devin and been intimately introduced to a storefront window looked exactly like Zoisite.

After that studying wasn't possible and I let heavenly sleep drag me down into deep waters.

When I woke a white rose rested in the seam of my open textbook. Snarling my hair by dragging my fingers across my scalp I tried to create a semblance of logical thought.

'_What's with this? Who keeps leaving me roses? Augh, this is so creepy._'

Shaking my head I wracked my brain for events preceding all the other roses I'd gotten. The first was in the hospital after my third and worst 'run-in' with Devin. The next after I'd gotten home to Morningside from the hospital. The third was shortly after when I thought I'd seen Ami. They'd all showed up after something distressing happened, but what did that mean? I knew five vampires and one was taken with stalking me and the other hated me, the remaining three had even worse motives.

'_By all means, tell me which one it is.'_ I though sarcastically, '_Darien, in the study, with the wrench?' _

Suddenly I had a strong urge to go claim Topaz's fishnet decor. Not really knowing why, I walked down to Brook's room and asked her.

She stared at me for several moments, her pupils almost looked like a cat's as she drilled through me. It was, of course, my bizarre imagination run amuck.

"Problems dahling?" she murmured.

"Uh, yeah," I muttered and spontaneously decided to tell her. "Someone keeps leaving me roses while I'm asleep. There's no way anyone could get into there. No way."

"Mmm, who could that be?" she said almost inaudibly. "Well, you'll have to take the ivy too."

"You don't think I'm psycho?"

"Dahling, I've been swinging with the Argents for three years now. In a non-sexually oriented way," she hastily amended. "You must have amazing potential to subconsciously recognize this for what it is."

Brook unfolded her impossibly long frame and reached for the ties and nails holding it.

"What is it?" I asked moving to do the same from the futon.

"A one purpose ward, which allowed us to make it stronger. It will keep anyone with malevolent intentions out. Also the ocean disturbs _them, _old superstition about running water, you know," she shrugged. "We'll reset a few things and you'll be good."

The next morning there was another rose in a crystal vase on my bedside.

Need, I say I flipped? Brook only shrugged and told me to stop worrying; they obviously had good intentions.

"What else can you do? Yeah, it's really creepy; so shut your blinds when you change. I don't know what else to tell you. It's not like you can go to the police. Just ignore it and enjoy the flowers. Not everything supernatural is a vampire and whoever's doing this isn't going to harm you. Chill dahling," were her exact words.

While I didn't see eye to eye, there was nothing I could do. So I chose to splurge on a nice tall coffee and spend a little time jamming with Melinda at the club.

Just my luck that she would be in an ironic mood and we'd wind up playing 'Bad Moon Rising.'

'I see the bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way. I see earthquakes and lightnin'. I see bad times today. Don't go around tonight, Well, it's bound to take your life, There's a bad moon on the rise.

'I hear hurricanes ablowing. I know the end is coming soon. I fear rivers over flowing. I hear the voice of rage and ruin. Don't go around tonight, Well, it's bound to take your life, There's a bad moon on the rise. All right!

'Hope you got your things together. Hope you are quite prepared to die. Looks like we're in for nasty weather. One eye is taken for an eye.

'Don't go around tonight, Well, it's bound to take your life, There's a bad moon on the rise. Don't go around tonight, Well, it's bound to take your life, There's a bad moon on the rise.'

This was enough to raise the hair on the back of my neck. One minute the crowd was grooving along, having a wonderful time, talking and such, and next it was pitch black.

From the lame twanging sounds from my bass and Melinda next to me, I realized the power had gone out. In a moment a rolling rumble of thunder confirmed it. The crowd shrieked and yelled in the darkness, shattering a momentary silence. I was really glad I wasn't out in the middle of it.

Next to me, I heard Melinda's quiet laughter.

"Nasty weather, huh?" she joked.

Shivering, I was reassured that she, at least, could be calm about it. The song was just too much. Lifting the strap over my head, I groped for her. As people flooded out the door a tiny bit of light was coming in from lightning, but at the very back of the club it did nothing, but daze your eyes. Over people's heads I could just make out sheets of water.

"Melinda?" I called, "Chris?"

"Hey, over here Sere!" the drummer called back, "Melinda's gone already. I've got to pack up this whole bloody set in the dark," he grumbled.

"Hey, I'll try and get to the manager's office for a flashlight," I offered.

"Thanks babe, you're a doll."

Snickering at his jargon, I set the bass down and cautiously hopped off the stage. I stumbled a few steps, kicking an empty beer bottle across the floor. It rattled loudly, and I tried not to shiver. Almost everyone had packed out the door already. Blindly, I slammed into the wall and groaned.

"You alright?" Chris shouted.

"Yeah, just getting reacquainted with some Pink Floyd, you know, The Wall," I bitterly replied while rubbing my nose. He snorted loudly. Heart beating in a horrible frenzy, I started as a deep sexy laugh rose out of the air next to me. The presence was almost tangible. Trailing an arm along the wall—didn't stop me from running into the owner of that laugh.

"Sorry, it's a bit dark in here," I muttered. He laughed again as I fumbled along the doorframe for the handle. Quickly, I grabbed it and shut the door behind me. A relieved sigh rose out of my throat at being alone. It unnerved me to know where someone was without mundane senses. As if I could detect the disturbed air from someone standing in the room almost. The hall to the office was still. I made my way up the stairs, towards flickering candle light.

"Mark, I need a flashlight," I called. The door swung open at a light touch. My vision trailed across the desk, a few scattered papers and a cheap white candle burning. Shrugging, I stepped forward to pick it up and froze.

Mark was lying in a small puddle of blood on the other side of the desk. Quickly, I vaulted over and knelt down to check his pulse. His head dropped when I turned it revealing puncture marks. Horrified, I stood up. He was already dead. Drawing a deep breath I leaned over to pick up the phone receiver and forced open the locked drawer. Grabbing the flashlight and revolver, I dialed emergency and dropped it on the floor.

Chris was in deep shit. Silently, I ran down the stairs hoping he was still alive. Trying not to shake I kicked the door open and swore. The whole place was empty and Chris's drums sat half packed. Warily, I climbed the steps onto the stage. All of the drumheads had exploded outward and the cymbals were impossibly stretched and twisted. Burnt on the floor was a black crescent moon. Jamming the revolver into a coat pocket I sprinted out into the rain, cursing all the way to the subway station.

"Brook?" I yelled as pounded on her door, "It's Serena, open up."

"What the fuck do you want?" her bleary-eyed roommate yelled, only opening the chain.

"Is Brook there?"

"No!"

She slammed the door as loudly as she could on the chain.

"Where the hell is she?"

No response.

"I'll beat on this door until you answer me!" I threatened

"I don't know! Fuck off!" was the muffled reply.

Groaning, I slid down the door. It was at this moment I remembered the gun in my pocket. Trying not to choke, I stumbled to my door and pulled my keys out. My hand shook so badly it took me five minute to get the door open. Dropping onto my bed, I sat there and shook violently for several minutes. Why hadn't I just picked my bass up and left? Why?

'_I'm so screwed!_'

Eventually, I stood up and left to find the nearest off-campus police station. On the way I found a discreet dumpster. Carefully I unloaded the revolver and wiped any fingerprints off. I put the gun in a trash bag and casually dropped the bullets in another trashcan down the street. Of course the gun would be registered and they'd note it's disappearance, but what more could I do? I wasn't about to be caught with it in my stuff. I'd tell them I hadn't seen a gun in the drawer. I had been looking for a flashlight after all!

Rubbing my forehead, I wondered how on earth I would get through this. The rain was stopping and it was now around six.

When they were finished questioning me it was just after ten. All I knew was the sludge they called coffee around was unfit for lab rats.

The only good thing was it was Saturday. The sun was going down by the time I woke up. In the reflection in the window I thought I saw someone watching me, but when I sat up it was gone. Shivering from paranoia, I snapped the blinds shut. I found a clean shirt in my closet, grabbed my transformation pen out of a drawer, and jammed it in the pocket of my jeans. Dragging the monstrous pile of stuff off the floor inside I began to rummage. Finally the coat emerged, in it was the switchblade and I quickly tucked it in the small of my back, beneath my shirt. Hesitating, my hand lay on the coat. Take it, or leave it? Halfheartedly, I picked it up.

"Layhas," I told Dena.

She returned in kind, grinning at my attempt to mimic her British accent. Unaware that anything was wrong.

Trying to decide whether it was better to be hallucinating or receiving mysterious roses, I hopped down the hall to Brook's room. Shifting from one foot to the other and trying to remember what it was like to be a child.

"Hey, Brook?" I stuck my head around the door.

"Dahling! How are you?" She greeted from the window seat.

"Worse than shit," I said completely bluntly, "Thank Kami, your roommate is out."

"What?" she gave me a puzzled look.

"I came looking for you last night, or early this morning. Said you weren't here along with a few other choice words."

"I'm sorry. What happened?" Her face had paled as I spoke.

"The storm knocked out the power at the club where I was playing. I went up to get a flashlight from the manager and he was dead…" I stopped and rubbed my forehead, "Before that, I was cracking jokes with the drummer. Someone else laughed and I knocked into him.

"Fuck. It must have been a vampire. When I came back down Chris—the drummer, I mean—was gone. His stuff was vandalized, impossibly. There was a burnt crescent moon on the floor and I'm babbling." I shut my mouth.

"S-sit down, dahling," she said in a shaky voice. "I'll have to take you to see someone, but I have to do a few things first."

"What's going on?" I asked, not sure I wanted an answer.

"There's some kind prophecy among the wielders of light, the Argents. Most of them just think it's a fucking load of shit, but lately enough things have come to pass to set them on edge."

As she spoke she grabbed items from boxes and drawers. Placing some of her collection in front of me revealed small glass bottles and jars, no bigger than hotel shampoos.

"What is it?"

"Vervain," she muttered, "What? Oh, you mean…" she closed her eyes as if envisioning it.

"Long has the Lady lain frozen,

Lost her love of light,

In the shadows has fallen,

The last Child of the Sight,

All the seas storm in despair,

The Queen of long desire,

Has left her court an empty chair,

And joined she of the fire,

Purity is lost with bitter irony,

She walked into the sun,

Rather than live in hypocrisy,

And thus the fight is left to one.

Ten thousand years in rising,

Ten thousand years to fall,

And in the end the Darkness will wake to destroy us all."

Her eyes burned silver when she opened them and the lights flickered, buzzing with an electric hum.

"Fuck, I shouldn't have said it aloud," she whispered, "those words have too much power." Her eyes dulled as she shoved back her sandy blond hair with a shaking hand. Never had I seen Brook lose her cool before.

"Damn it," she yelled as she dropped one of the bottles and it shattered on the floor.

"Brook?" I questioned gently.

"Just put those in a pocket and let's go," she whispered dragging her hand through her hair. A sure sign she was agitated, if I hadn't already known. My skin gave a frisson when I slid into the jacket, running up and down my spine before settling a chill in my fingertips.

'Paradise' was spray painted in neon green in a contrasting elegant cursive hand straight across the door and walls on either side. We'd gotten off the sub at Queens and I'd been lost from there. Brook had unlocked the narrow black door and I followed her up the trashy stairs, wondering how this place had gotten past fire codes. My shoulders were brushing wall on either side. Underneath all the graffiti was probably lead paint; this place had been here forever. The haphazard architecture indicated as much; the stairs twisted around from tiny landing to tiny landing until I had no idea which way the street was. Fluorescent lights, the only new fixture as far as I could tell, flickered at a subliminal rate that made you blink and wonder if it was the lights or your eyes?

When Brook stopped I ran into her.

"Wait a sec." She grimaced at me before opening her mouth to speak. "Don't cry for me Argentina," her light voice carried and the walls tossed it around, reverberating into an ethereal pitch. When it had fallen silent the sound of deadbolts clicking was heard for a few seconds.

"I've brought a friend," she murmured quickly.

"Brook has friends?" a male voice mocked.

"Shut up, Jed," she returned and shoved the figure further inside. My hands were freezing, I realized; trying to calm myself, telling myself it was a coincidence. It was dark as stepped in.

"Well, friend of Brook, Welcome to the underworld." He pulled what turned out to be a black curtain aside and we stepped into the rabbit hole. The room was a forest, the walls painted different shades of green, the boxy but comfy looking chairs and sofa ranging from sage to jade. A coffee table shaped like a leaf hosted several élan martini glasses with spirals of emerald colour twisting through the glass.

A stunning girl with astonishing sea green hair was casually draped over the couch.

"Who's this poor creature you've dragged into our lot, Brook?" her voice was melodic and reminiscent of Ami.

"This is Serena, Michiru," Brook replied.

"Serena? What a lovely name," she said, sitting up.

"It's really Usagi, Topaz thought Serena fit me better," I risked in a low voice. Now I recalled seeing this girl with a tall blond man at the funeral. They had made a striking couple and I wanted to say I had seen the green haired girl somewhere before but I couldn't place her.

Michiru gracefully rose to her feet and lifted my chin. Her amazing hair waved about her face, and with a swallow I realized just how beautiful she was. Sea shifting eyes pierced through me.

"You miss her."

I nodded, unwilling to show how much my throat had tightened.

"It will ease with time, but you—you are that dancer whose been plagued by so much bad luck I've heard about."

I started.

"Yes, I attend Julliard, I play violin." She mistook my surprise. People at Julliard had been talking about me?

"I'd better take her into Haruka, huh?" Brook half sighed. Apprehensively, I glanced at the way we'd come in and froze. Jadeite was casually leaning against the wall with his arms crossed next to Brook and he was looking at me.

"I'll take your jacket," he said. Before I knew it I had handed it to him and was following Brook through a white door.

"Brook, good to see you," a breezy voice greeted. I tried to close my jaw; the guy I'd seen with Michiru, was a girl, a gorgeous girl in a tomboyish way.

"Haruka, Serena was at a club called Broken Glass when an Ancient under the Dark One's direction attacked," Brook said.

"The murder that was in the Times? Trust the force to leave out anything useful." She sighed and propped her feet on the desk.

"It gets worse, Serena here has been having stalker problems."

"Serena?" Her head snapped up and she stared at me with wintry eyes. Iciness diffused through me. "Come here," she murmured. Unthinking, I knelt before her chair. My mind had receded to some unknown region, leaving me an empty shell. Haruka shook her head and then reached forward two fingers to brush the center of my forehead.

Wind gusted against me, stripping away everything until I was nothing. Nothing but a soul. Then another lifetime came and went so quickly it left me only with the essence of darkest despair. Death, my anguished senses told me. Head too heavy with tears to hold upright, I slumped over Haruka's knees.

"Princess."

Soothing hands brushed through my hair and across my scalp. Torrid tears ran down my face and I did not understand why. There was only a horrid sense of death lodged next to my heart. When I couldn't cry anymore, my eyes felt like lead balls in their sockets.

"Brook, take her out to the lounge so she's comfortable and bring Michiru in."

I was gently lifted up and felt lips brush my forehead, but my dulled senses barely registered it, or what's more, who it was. The only thing I properly noticed was the jade couch swallowing me. For a long time it seemed, I lay blinking at the ceiling. Not really thinking, but letting my subconscious sort things out, since it obviously knew more than it was telling the rest of me.

"How did you get this jacket?"

Turning my head slightly I saw Jadeite, but didn't care.

"You really didn't think I wouldn't recognize my former liege lord's aurora, did you? Idiot! It will create a bond, a bond that will quickly get you killed!"

He lit a match and set it against it. I had neither the strength nor the mind to answer him. He was taunting me, but I did not know why, nor did I care; I wanted to sleep. Sleep to forget this pain that I did not understand.

When I woke sunshine was streaming through the windows. Gradually, I recognized the emerald room; diffused with sunlight the greens were peaceful. My ponytail had come undone and my hair was falling into my face. Sitting up, I gasped lightly in shock. It was longer than me and was pooling like molten gold about my ankles.

'_Perhaps, that is why my head was so heavy?'_ A corner of my mind timidly ventured. I propped it up on my hand and recalled the previous night. Haruka had called me Princess, why? With the memory came a pang, but nothing else.

Deciding the only way to find out was to ask her, I tried to deal with my hair. Finding the tie I twisted it into a lose knot and the base of my neck, but there was too much of it. So instead I twisted the length of it around my head, coronet style, as many times as it would go before tucking in the ends. Catching sight of myself in the reflection of the window I made a face. At least it was out of my way, if messy. Something flashed on my forehead, but when I looked again I couldn't see anything.

Examining the empty room I notice another door. Cautiously I twisted the knob, lest it be an occupied bathroom. A quick glance attested a kitchen.

Michiru was in a deep emerald skirt and pale green plain top. The elegant blond figure I recognized again as Haruka stood behind with her arms wrapped around Michiru's waist and her head resting on her shoulder. Haruka was clad in all black, tight and tasteful.

I froze, thinking I'd uncouthly stumbled into something private. Then I noticed Brook and Jadeite eating brunch on mismatched barstools.

"Good morning, Princess," Haruka said softly, and Michiru echoed her.

Glancing at the two eating, they were undisturbed and hadn't seemed to notice me. My questions died in my throat. Had they really spoken, or was my mind running away with me?

"Come we'll take tea in the lounge," Michiru said take my elbow to guide me out of the room. Again I looked at Jadeite and Brook, but they didn't look up.

A tray rattled as Haruka entered the lounge and I inhaled the calming scent of green tea. Folding my hands around the cup she'd poured for me, I let the scent wash over my face and closed my eyes. They wouldn't disturb me until I opened them again, I knew not how I knew, but I did. Were they the missing Senshi? Then why were they calling me…princess?

"I'm not a princess. You must be mistaken, I am not a princess," I said firmly without opening my eyes. My heart pounded like I'd just ran the Boston Marathon and I could taste panic in my throat.

"As you wish," Haruka replied. I felt her touch my forehead again and warmth flow through me from the touch. Haruka settled back into a loveseat next to Michiru as I opened my eyes. Gingerly, I touched my forehead; it was feverish. Confused, I looked to the couple, Michiru smiled kindly, but Haruka was distant.

"Haruka, take this back to the kitchen," her arm swept over the white porcelain tea service, "I will take care of her, but let her finish her breakfast first."

For the first time I noticed the food sitting in front of me and how hungry I was. I hadn't eaten since, Kami, I couldn't remember! I made quick work of the waffles, fruit, and tea.

"Come, Serena, we must do something with your hair." Michiru smiled and held her hand out to me. I took it and felt comforted, just like a small child would be.

'_But,_' I thought, '_aren't we all small children? Underneath all the scars and calluses from life?'_

In the corner of Haruka's office was another tiny stairway. Michiru lead me up it and into a hall adjoined to several bedrooms. Giving me an armful of fluffy towels and a robe she pointed out the bathroom and told me I could use anything I needed. It took nearly a bottle of shampoo to wash all my hair. It was so heavy when it was wet that I sat down in the tub and just let the water wash over me. Let it wash away the lingering pain, and grit of exhaustion.

Michiru brushed my hair out astonishingly quickly and gently. Carefully, she trimmed it back to knee length and twisted it up into odangos.

"How did you know I wear my hair like this?" I asked.

She only shrugged as she opened her closet door.

"Here, pick out anything you'd like to wear and you can change in there," she said. The closet was packed with everything from Channel dresses to thrift store shirts. The selection was overwhelming so I merely picked out a white skirt that draped nicely and dark blue tank top studded with sporadic white rhinestones. It looked like the night sky. A stitch tightened in my stomach as I remembered Jadeite burning Mamo—Darien's jacket so I took a jean jacket that almost smelled the same.

"We've a spare room for you to crash with us for the summer. Your training will be intense, so it will be easier to stay here. We own this place so there's no need to worry about rent or anything. Of course your dancing will continue through the summer, which we can work around. Are you taking any summer classes? Do you still have finals to take?"

"What training?" I demanded. Inside of me I could feel anger coiling; no matter where I went half the truth was kept from me.

"You have…unlimited power within you, but without training it is useless. You need to be able to protect yourself, and others. The most desperate battle for this earth is indeed coming," she whispered, "We need you."

For a moment I hesitated.

"As Senshi of the Moon it is my duty and privilege to protect the people of this earth until I find my Princess. I will do whatever I can."

A thousand things happened that summer. Michiru and Haruka revealed themselves as the Senshi of Neptune and Uranus respectively. They resolved to move the entire Argent crew to Tokyo to rejoin with Mina, Luna, and Artemis. I was overjoyed to be back in Tokyo.

Luna told me there were at least four other Senshi loose in Tokyo. This news set Michiru and Haruka on edge, though they refused to tell anyone why. Telling them about Ami was painful, but it was pushed away by the joy of discovering Makoto was the Senshi of Jupiter. She mysteriously showed up at our flight gate with all her stuff. Saying only she felt like a storm was coming and she was in the wrong place.

We trained to fight an enemy that would strike without warning and only once. There would only be one battle and we would win or lose.

Brook and the regular Argents evanesced into the background along with a fistful of others who came and went. They were all slayers, but had no more power than reading auroras. Their battlefield was the street; they could take out spies and that was more helpful than anything else they were capable of doing. Brook and I still talked, but it was about casual things. If a vampire broke through her mind shields, or any other slayers' for that matter, they'd have accesses to anything the slayer knew. My living with Haruka and Michiru would be suspicious enough as it was. Haruka said they probably already knew why I was here, but she'd rather them know nothing else. Jadeite disappeared less then a day after we moved in. Haruka and Michiru didn't seem to care. This didn't make sense since they were being so cautious about what the regular Argents knew. I was still unnerved that at least three of the Generals were alive.

The penthouse we lived in had a dance studio. I maintained my studies, hoping—though doubting—I would return to Julliard and Colombia in the fall. As the summer went on I found myself becoming less and less emotional. Withdrawn, frozen, and focused on training myself to face whatever it was that waited.

Although it all faded with the last storm of summer…


	7. cracks in the sidewalk

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter VII

Haruka was adamant about any of us Senshi leaving the building without two others. All I wanted was a moment to myself. Makoto and Mina had become irritations. They were always laughing and talking as if they hadn't a care in the world when the world as we knew it could end at almost anytime. Michiru was a superb violinist, but her haunting melodies were depriving me of sleep. They'd get stuck in my head and ricochet through my attempts to sleep for half the night. Haruka would stand out on the east balcony for hours on end. When asked what the hell she was doing she said she was talking to the wind. I didn't understand her at all. One minute she was kindness herself, the next she was cold as death. Luna and Artemis came and went as they pleased and I was never more jealous of a cat. I hadn't even gone to see my family.

Our training had wound down; there was little left to master. Keeping our skills at peak only required regular use. I turned instead to investigating the enemy. The world considered vampires a myth and so where else would the truth lie but within mythology? Of course this meant they'd been warped for the joy of the telling, but the truth was underneath it all.

I threaded my fingers across my scalp and then clenched my hand to hold my head up by my hair. Dozens of packages from the world's leading expert on existing vampire mythology had arrived by post this afternoon and it was now approaching midnight. Professor Tomoe was so in-depth I could hardly follow. Beyond the scripts of the original documents and translations he had classified and essayed each separate legend. The logic was so thorough I could hardly keep up. Professor Tomoe was a treasure, such a treasure that I was surprised not to find vampire aurora all over the documents. He had to have intimate knowledge of vampires; you couldn't hit the nail on the head every single time. Everything I knew about vampires was in these documents, everything and more.

I hadn't come across the reasoning that the more kills they made the less sunlight they could stand. Another legend dismissed the bat transformation as 'foreign rubbish.' Some cultures even viewed vampires as a supernatural justice system. Others considered them primal evil. Superstition ran amuck and without Prof. Tomoe's persistent piecework I'd never have gotten through to find what was useful. He indicated the superstitions that appeared most commonly, rather than addressing one culture's view. The European vampire was more known, thanks to Bram Stoker, than say the Aborigine vampire. He dealt with each version in a scientific fashion. Nothing in his approach suggested he believed any of it, but the way he came off correct stated this was more than a study of story telling.

"The earliest legend has indications," Prof. Tomoe wrote, "of Mesopotamian origin. It is an old Hindu tale with a modern counterpart, but the wording of this particular version suggests it is much older than was first surmised. The language also takes cues from Mesopotamia."

He went on to say, "There are insinuations that the vampire in subject was originally a slave. With his mind solely bent upon vengeance his transformation into a vampire is attributed to a crazed lust for his master's blood. From this humble beginning of a slave rises a being of such darkness that it has spawned legends and myths in every nation around the world."

The legend itself was dark, brutal, and extreme. There was no consideration that their descriptions would millenniums later be considered grotesquely gory. It brought the Roman gladiatorial games to mind, just another example of people enjoying carnage. The story described the vampire's rise to domination and its defeat at long last and great coast.

This was the face of my foe.

We waited. The longer we waited the more I felt my insides twisting. The harsher I was on Mina and Makoto. The less I smiled. The more time I spent alone in my stark white room, sitting on the west balcony and staring at the sky. Or pouring over Professor Tomoe's papers for something I had missed the first fifty times I'd read through them. Eventually, I became so saturated in vampire culture I couldn't take anymore of it.

When I ceased talking, Mina and Makoto became introverted. They would break off their conversations whenever I entered the room and they would watch me with worry in their eyes. I would likely have stopped eating if Michiru hadn't stood menacingly over me for every bite.

It was then Haruka told me we must wait for our Princess to give the command.

We must wait.

Those words would to be my death sentence. I nodded to show her I had heard and retreated to my room. We would die by the hands of the Black One before she arrived.

It was then I decided to leave. Changing into all black I concealed my favorite weapons on me. I had come a long way since Topaz's knife (though I loved it best) and the gun in the dumpster. My transformation pen tucked in my sleeve where I could reach it instantly; I walked out of the penthouse unchecked by anyone. I would find our Princess or I would find the Black One, either way, the game was up.

Dark clouds had rolled in as I had prowled through Tokyo, blotting out any stars that might have shone bright enough to get through the city lights. The would-be night populace could've cared less. A group laughed and sung drunkenly as they made their way home just in time for work tomorrow. I was glad it was not the weekend, lest my simmering anger be wasted on a slovenly pickup artist.

My wandering feet took me through the old Azabu district. Looking at the Crown I was surprised to see someone other than Motoki behind the bar. At the same time I wasn't; life was change after all.

After that, I passed through my surroundings in oblivion. I needed to decide where to attempt a summoning. A temple would reinforce me just a little from the dedication of the grounds. But would it be worth depriving people of a safer place to take shelter?

"Usagi?"

Jerking my head up, I stared.

"Shingo? Shingo!"

My 'little' brother had shot up while I was gone and was more than a head taller than me. I discovered this as he crushed me in a hug.

"Usa, I missed you," he said.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Ah, this is ridiculous!" I said as I stretched on my toes just to ruffle his hair.

"A complete outrage! How am I supposed to pick on my little brother when he's taller than me?"

He just laughed while I pretended to fume.

"It hasn't been the same without you. What are you doing here without even calling us anyway?" He scolded.

"I took a summer internship with a ballet company," I hastily cover myself.

"That's great Usa! We have to take you out to celebrate!"

"Not tonight Shingo. They've really got me on my toes," he burst out laughing, "No pun intended," I added.

"You can't even come home tonight?" he pleaded, "Not for your little brother?"

"I really can't," I shifted uncomfortably. I hated lying to him! "It's going to be hard to find a chance to get away. They're performing every night we're here and we'll be leaving soon. I will call you tomorrow, alright?"

"Promise, Usa?"

"I promise." I lied. "Ashiteru, Shingo," I impulsively blurt.

"Ashiteru, Usa," he returned, looking a little surprised.

We parted and my heart ached for the normal life that radiated from my brother. He was well dressed; did he have a job? A book bag was slung over his shoulder; what school was he attending now?

A 'don't walk' sign left me waiting at the curb and in the momentary stillness before the cars began to move again I felt a covert tug I'd missed before. In one smooth motion I looked up and the cars moved past me creating a breeze that blew my hair in my eyes. When I could see again it was gone.

I stifled a feral growl. It was keeping back just far enough that I couldn't read an aurora. Slipping through the shadows, though whoever it was didn't need them to conceal him or her self. I could still feel it, in the more remote corners of my mind. A tugging questioning presence that waited. Had waited and would wait; wait for what?

It felt similar to Topaz, but Topaz was no longer my friend; she was a vampire. With her death I had lost most of my humanity, and all of my sanity. My life as I knew it had shattered.

The light changed and I moved on. A teashop beckoned, glowing warmly, but I ignored it. A single midnight rose fluttered down to land before my feet. '_How ludicrous_,' I thought, carefully stepping over it.

And into nothing.

"My darling Serena, how charming of you to drop in." My hand was raised to chill lips.

I spun away, erecting mental barriers to defend my mind.

It was midnight in the Garden of Death.

This had been in the memoirs Topaz had given me. These were their sacred grounds; here they held more power than anywhere. This was the birthplace of their race. More cursed than sacred it seemed to me. Dead rose bushes lined the path. Dried up, a desert of eerie twilight.

There was a slight prick and my walls shattered. I bit back a gasp of horror; Devin hadn't been this strong, not even The Garden could have given him this much power

His cold hand brushed the hair on the back of my neck; I stiffened.

"Where is your sense of fair play, Devin? Have you abandoned the chivalry of cat and mouse?" I murmured in my now trademark dispassionate tone. Discreetly I felt for my morphing pen, but it was gone alone with every other weapon I'd had.

'_I've nothing to protect myself with; one blow and I am down. Hell, it wouldn't even take a blow, one look into those obsidian eyes and he has me here!'_

My fists clenched driving my nails to bite into my hands. My breathing was ragged with fear and anger so I smoothed it; not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing how terrified I was.

"Cat and mouse; chivalry?" He laughed, what might once have been honest, now warped cruelty. I shuddered feeling his breath on my exposed neck.

'_Petty fool thinks he's a creature of the hunt when he doesn't even understand the rules of nature. The honor of the cat is that it gives its prey every possible chance to escape. To let it live if it can win it's life back. How can he not know that, when even I do? How can he be so powerful if he is so ignorant? He must have aligned with the Black One'_

I braced my knees, and summoned my strength.

"What do you want?"

"You, only you."

I tore away in absolute revulsion.

"You're beautiful Serena, frosted, I can't let you melt, my dear. Your frozen passion will be mine forever." As he spoke he walked down the path to stand beneath the black skeleton of a monstrous tree. I would have laughed, that is, if I hadn't been so utterly terrified.

"No."

In a dizzying blur he stood inches before me.

"I'm sorry my love, what did you say?" His voice was pure of any innuendo of anger, sweet, virtuous, and immaculate. That scared me more than rage would. It betrayed a precise control, detached of all emotion. While he could claim to want me, he'd have just as little trouble…

These thoughts were far from pleasant.

"I will not," I growled sharply. I choked at the prick of fangs on the back of my neck. He had moved faster than I could see.

"Oh, I do believe you will."

I spun around to backhanded him. Before I could move an inch he had broken my leg and my wrist again. He took my lower lip between his fangs, applying light pressure before he flew back and slammed into the earth. I sank to the ground trying to hold the pain at bay with my mind. An avenging figure stood between my tormentor and me. Gibbering pain filled my mind precluding all rational thought. I watched Devin rise into the air again and again to slam into the soil. In slow motion I felt a build of his power rise with a supernatural rush and, leaving no time to react, he lashed out.

I screamed. Choking in shame at my display of pain to an unworthy adversary. Tears streamed down my face and I rolled in agony.

'_My shields, if only he had left my shields alone.' _

The sensation of water spilled across me in a soothing spread, washing away the pain.

"_Hush, you're safe now._"

I knew nothing.

Soft cotton sheets smelt like sunshine. I sighed and wistfully rolled over. Knives shot up my arm and leg; I nearly asphyxiated at the unexpected pain.

"Hold still, now that you are awake I can finish healing you."

'_Where have I heard that voice?'_

Darien held my wrist and warmth flooded it. Even more shocking was seeing Rei and _Ami_ standing behind him.

"I told you," Rei said in a singsong voice and grinned. Once again displaying her dazzling vicious fangs.

'_Told me…? Told me she'd see me again?'_

"Serena, what possessed you to leave them?" Ami demanded.

Blankly, I stared at her; when had she ever called me Serena before? My wrist cracked loudly and I gasped aloud in pain. Darien stared at me with haunting dark eyes while my brain tried to catch up to what they were saying and why they were here and where was here anyway?

"We are at my mansion," he said.

"Bruce Wayne," I hissed, mocking him. His mansion. I had the sneaking suspicion that he could have made healing my wrist quite painless. I glared at him and tried to erect mind barriers while he watched me with impassive eyes. They wouldn't work.

"What! What has he? What have you done to me?" I demanded.

"I had a link to you and I don't regret it. If I hadn't you would have started everything too soon," he replied frostily. At the same time he pull back the blankets and placed his hands on my broken leg.

"You have a link?" I snarled, " you have no right, I—I," I faltered as I realized all of what he'd said, "Ami, I told you I'd ruin it all!" I wailed and buried my face in the sheets. Enough of my former iciness was left however that I couldn't cry. She wrapped her arms around me.

"Serena," again she used my American name, "it will be alright. Now there's a bathroom through that door, wash up, change and come have dinner with Rei and I."

Numbly, I nodded and did as she said, except when I opened the closet it was filled with dark men's clothes. Mortified, I looked around at the room I was in; it was Darien's. But my clothes had disappeared. I had no choice unless I wanted to wander the halls of this place in a towel. So I neatly rolled up the pants so I wouldn't trip on them and the sleeves of cobalt dress shirt. The pants were all right but the shirt made me look ridiculous so I found a black sweater and threw it on overtop. The result was an odd combination of prep school, gothic, and girl-stealing-guy's-fashion. Nervously, I stuck my head out into the hall. The corridor seemed to stretch on forever. The whole place was done in what appeared to be classical baroque if I had my architecture straight. I probably didn't.

Light was flickering underneath the door across the hall. I knocked and slowly entered. Rei looked up at me from her chair and sniggered.

"Oh, dear. I didn't think about clothing, I'm sorry," Ami apologized.

"I did," laughed Rei, "and I think it looks great on you!"

I wondered if she was mad.

Darien, I noted with relief, was not present. It was then a horrifying thought struck me; I'd been invited to dinner by two vampires.

"Serena," Ami scolded, "sit down and eat!"

Giddy relief at my own inanity struck me in a weird mood all of the sudden.

"I can't stay here," I irrelevantly replied.

"No you can't."

Three heads moved at once to see Darien standing on the fringe of a shadow.

"And I suppose you're just going to chuck her out the door this very minute, are you?" Ami snapped. He met her glare with a detached stare and something passed between them before she broke away. This was certainly not _my _Ami.

"_Serena, just sit down and eat, don't mind them_," Rei's whisper seemed more within the confines of my mind than audible. Watching her, while I tried to do as she said discreetly, Rei seemed oddly subdued.

"You are a fool!" Ami shouted and slammed out the door. Ami _never _shouted and_ never_ slammed doors.

Darien merely dissolved into shadow again. Rei sighed loudly in the sudden silence.

"She's right, but what use is there in telling him so?" She shook her head, "He knows it in his heart."

"He has a heart?" I bit out. She flinched and caught my gaze with a brilliant flash of violet from midnight eyes.

"Yes, he does and it's been put through more than it's share of agony in life and death. I grew up with parents and knowing—even looking forward—to what I was to become. He had none of that. You could do a lot worse than to have some compassion for him." Her voice carried the searing coldness of dry ice.

"He never had any compassion for me." I dully stated. A chilling numbness swept through me leaving only a sense of void within myself.

"That's not true," Rei insisted, heatedly. "He thinks I never saw, but it's been eating him from the inside until the servants can tell—" she broke off sharply, "but it is not my place." She gestured gracefully towards the small table set in front of me. The light gleaming off her claret nails invited me to look at the silverware and dome covering the plate. As well as the white rose in a crystal vase identical to one I had recently come into tenure of.

"You're food has grown cold."

The words barely registered. My mind was flying with pieces that fit together, but still didn't make any sense.

"Where do these roses come from?" I heard myself ask.

"My brother's private garden."

"The vase?"

"The Terran collection, I suppose. Why do you ask?"

"I have one exactly like it."

"How is that possible? Our collection is centuries old. The craftsman of this vase has been dead and forgotten for eons."

"I've received five white roses no different from this one and the last was in this vase's twin."

I could feel her gaze stripping away my outer layers like chipped paint and stared at the richly hued rug; if I looked her in the eyes she'd see my soul and know all of me she wanted. The wooden legs of the chair were carved with meticulous detail, the arms smooth with wear and polish beneath my skin. This place had seen ages past my reckoning; the baroque was just a new face. Wriggling my toes into the carpet, I risked a glance up; she was gone and so was the rose.

Despite it all, I was hungry so I ate the foreign cuisine and stepped into the hall. Taking a wild guess, I turned right following the carpet runner towards a paned window at the end out the hall that stretched almost from floor to ceiling. Outside was a bleak landscape that didn't look like Japan, or America. The sky was dull grey overcast that seemed to wash out any colour from the fall landscape of rolling grassy hills with scattered clusters of trees and dark broken lines that seemed to be remains of stone fences. Turning, I cast about for a staircase to use, but there was only wood paneling, tapestries, and a lonely suit of armor about a hundred yards back the way I'd come. All the doors were locked.

"What is the point of having so many rooms if no one uses any of them?" I muttered in my frustration, but no one heard or saw fit to answer. So I set off the other way. I'd left the door of the room I'd come out ajar so I could find my way back, but it was still empty.

As I walked, I tried to figure out what it all meant, but I only concluded that Darien had been leaving me roses and his intentions were pure, which made no sense whatsoever. He'd made it quite clear, both alive and dead, that he abhorred my presence.

Ami's story was that a Terran had changed her as she lay dying by Beryl's hand. Which Terran? Darien was a Terran vampire, but he was Rei's brother, which made her a Terran vampire as well. I assumed at least.

At an intersection I turned right and soon came to a balcony overlooking a vast open room. A freestanding grand staircase started on either end of the balcony and arched around unsupported by visible means to meet at a small landing before continuing down in two directions. Between hung an unlit chandelier too far away to behold as more than a faintly glittering mass suspended from the arching ceiling. The vast room held a sense of disturbed spirits.

Quickly, I followed the curving staircase down to the landing and paused. Windows graced the wall behind the landing giving a different view of the same landscape I'd seen earlier from two stories higher, now framed by two wings of the mansion. Glass doors would open into a garden, but not, by the looks of it, the rose garden. Turning the other way was the immense room—probably intended for dancing—I'd viewed from above on the balcony. Between a few elegant pillars supporting the balcony was clearly the main entryway to the building. About to make a dash across the chill marble floor to the front door I remembered I didn't have any shoes. From what I'd seen the outside terrain wasn't exactly inviting. Only now did I recall my transformation pen and that it was missing.

Swearing profusely, I sat down on the steps. Devin had taken it and I couldn't exactly ask him to give it back. It had taken Luna more than a month to make it and if they were even still alive...

How long had I been here? Not long, but long enough for the Dark One to attack the others in my absence. I had to get back to them even if I couldn't morph.

Beneath the chandelier was a round mosaic of the earth overlaid with a compass rose. Halls went out to the east and west. I had come out of the west wing so I turned east and followed the broad corridor lined with paintings. On the right were females sharing face shape and noses, to the left men with similar jaw lines. All shared midnight hair and dark eyes that occasionally were portrayed as an actual colour when caught in the right lighting. The clothing progressed through what was probably a millennium, but the quality of art never wavered. Some of the subjects smiled, some glared, others openly bared vicious fangs like Rei's. The long line of vampires ended on the male side with a forbidding Darien across from an arrogant, grinning Rei.

Here was another crack in the sidewalk; vampires were made not born. This hall was evidence of a long line of hereditary vampires. How was that possible? Were all of them turned after the next generation was born? It was the only thing that made any sense, but if the line stopped with Darien and Rei? Rei appeared too young to have been a mother when she was changed. Physically she appeared around nineteen, it was possible of course, but seemed unlikely. The thought of Darien being a father merely made me recall that it was none of my business…


	8. metamorphosis of the mirror

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter VIII

Something cold cut through me and I turned to one of the halls I'd passed up earlier in favor of viewing the family portrait gallery. All the eyes seemed to be burning through me so I was relieved to see only an occasional landscape lining the corridor of this wing. All the doors seemed to be open and revealed modern furnishings more like what I was accustomed to but still in coordinating style. When I came across a bedroom with an open wardrobe I stopped. Feeling not at all unlike the main character in a Disney movie I'd seen by chance while in America, I investigated. It was full of clothes in my size and to my tastes, but none of them seemed very warm and it looked like the wind was bitter.

As I thought this rain hit the wind and as it ran down the panes to my mind it seemed to hiss '_Haruka_.'

Shivering I pulled out a black turtleneck, long jean skirt, and a hooded grey cable knit sweater with embroidered fall leaves around the cuffs and buttons. Digging through some drawers I found a pale blue scarf and long wool socks. Draping Darien's clothing neatly over the bed I picked up the rain boots from the wardrobe floor. By the time I got back to the grand room it had stopped raining. A leaden grey overcast remained for as far as I could see out the tremendous windows. Gazing about at what would have been a glittering assault to the senses were it not washed in such gloomy light, I pulled on the boots sitting in the middle of the floor.

My lungs desired to sigh at the shameful waste of such a magnificent specimen of architecture, but the supreme silence of the place would not permit it. When my boots clunked and squeaked obnoxiously as I walked to the door it seemed like something was looking down on me with an austere air. As if the house itself demanded complete noiselessness.

Despite an unwelcoming blast of frigid air I was pleased to be away from that offended presence. The terrain on the road leading away from the house was worse than that of the surrounding ground so I took the first footpath that branched off the potholed and gullied road. It followed a crumbling stonewall lined with sporadic clusters of harassed mostly bare trees up and down rolling hills for two miles. I stopped on the last hill before the path plunged down into woods. Looking back the mansion made an impressive shadow against a misty fog that had begun to set in. Sitting down on a more secure chunk of wall I clapped the blood back into my hands. The exercise from climbing had kept the rest of me warm enough, but my hands were freezing. I felt so guilty about just leaving everyone and now I didn't even know where I was going. Even if I came to a town I wouldn't have any money to get back, but none of that seemed to matter anymore.

"Usagi?"

Jerking forward I spun around to see the last person I wanted to. Well, second to last.

"What do you want?" I eyed him warily.

"For you to cheer up." He walked to me, and not wanting to seem intimidated I remained where I was with my mind reeling in disbelief.

"Try not to lose this one, alright?" he easily slipped another coat onto me, little different from the last but falling to my ankles and stirring in the wind. When I dragged my eyes up to his they were met with a kindness I could not conceive.

'_You murdered my friend,'_ my throat wrapped itself around the words and refused to release them.

"Still you grieve," he whispered. I could feel him in my soul and wished to shut him out, but couldn't, or wouldn't? Within me I felt the sharp edge of something broken and _knew_.

"Topaz walked into the sun."

"Yes," he replied gently, " she could not bear what she was and so she accepted the light into her heart and moved on."

"But you did not kill her?"

"Devin," was the simple response.

My eyes watered, so I spun away and stamped my foot. Livid with myself; I could not control the tears. As my shoulders wracked with choking sobs, arms encircled me. Ferociously, I tried to rip away, but I was no match against a vampire. Consoling myself with the fact that he couldn't see my face, I wept uncontrollably.

When I finally found breath for words I gasped out in anguish, "I don't understand you! One minute you're dry ice; the next pure kindness!"

"I don't mean to be. I only want to protect you. From the world I dwell in and myself. You shouldn't have to live in fear."

"Did ever occur to you that I can take care of myself?"

"No."

For a long moment I fumed and continued crying.

'_I never asked for any of this. Just when I think I've maxed out. When I reached the limit of what I have to do something new lands on my shoulders. Maybe I did need someone to protect me, but now it's pointless. It's win or lose and one vampire will hardly make the difference.'_

"_Don't underestimate me Usako. With me will come the oldest and most powerful of my race. This it not your battle alone, the heart of it lies with my people. It is not even your fight, I don't want you risking yourself."_

"It is not my fight?" I breathed in dangerously level tones, "I am sworn to protect this land and I will die for it if need be. You cannot expect me to sit in the stands like a spectator to wait for the outcome. I can't; I won't."

Then those wise words from that long ago bartender came back to haunt me with their true meaning.

'Lass, he's only harsh because he's lost so much. It t'ain't easy coming inta what he has. Just brush it t'off child and go back ta what yur life was. Take a cab and go home, sleep it t'off. T'is only a nightmare.'

"A nightmare indeed," I whispered putting the portraits and the words together at last, "This is some kind of atrocious inheritance isn't it?"

"If you must know…" He began hesitantly, as if he were afraid to sound like he was trying to win my trust and friendship with pity, but gradually he began to unwind his story.

"When I was nine I lost my memory, and so they told me, my parents in a car accident. Thus I was thrown into a system of orphanages and group homes until I became of age. I had been left quite a sum, but for legal reasons I was not able to access it until that point. Around this time I met Motoki and you. Being socially maladroit I suppose I took to teasing you as the way I knew best to gain your attention. I don't know if you ever had the time to notice how few friends I had; you were always surrounded by so many."

He spoke with such detachment—as if he were speaking of someone else entirely and he'd merely been an observer—I wanted to turn around to look at him. To see how his face changed and the truth in his eyes, but he had given me my space. Well, not literally, I resisted the urge to squirm.

"When I turned twenty-one my father reappeared and—as you put it so eloquently—brought me into my 'atrocious inheritance' in the custom of the Sheilds and Terran line. As you've observed it runs hereditarily through my family and has done so for millenniums. Each generation waits for the next to produce an heir before turning their child. In some cases, such as Rei and mine, more than one child would be born. This time my late father, in despair over our mother's death, turned me before I had even procured a girlfriend. Due to my father's folly the line will end with me. Perhaps all vampires are meant to die in this battle.

"The Terran heir withholds power over every vampire and vampire spawn created. I am the Terran heir," the air shook with this assertion, "I am the only one with the power to destroy Him and will not rest until it is done."

"You are the only one of the earth with the power; there are other's, not of earth."

"I would be grateful for their assistance, but it will not come. Their kingdoms fell and were forgotten in my ancestors' sovereignties."

This was emotional overload. I couldn't understand and I couldn't just forget all that he'd put me through. Then there were the roses…

"Let go of me, please," I whispered. I needed space to think. The outcome may be exactly the same as it was before; '_we may all be damned in the end_.' For the here and the now I needed the solace of logic, immanent termination aside.

"Please don't shun me." His arms unfolded and I took a step forward.

Frantically, I studied the grey horizon as if the solution to this situation were written along it. The wind gusted bringing water to my eyes again and snapping my hair across my face. In his voice was the reminiscence of the little boy I'd seen in the cathedral who had cried bloody tears. Afraid of what I'd see, slowly I turned to face him.

His dark indigo eyes were watching me with such a childish desperation I felt my heart split in two.

"I," pausing a moment to timidly brush his midnight hair out of those haunting eyes, "I won't shun you. You can look to the sky to save you. What was dead will be reborn." The words and actions did not seem like my own. Though I meant what I'd said, I stepped back in dismay.

"I need—"

"Everyone is fine."

"Could you not do that?" I pleaded, taking another step back. This time into the deteriorating fence. A sorrowful look crossed his gorgeous features.

"I'll try not to."

"I wish you would disband the link."

"I already have."

Frowning, I realized my mind shields had been in place from the beginning of our encounter.

"How have—How can you?" I stared at him in utter perplexity.

Expressively, he shrugged.

"I couldn't tell you."

Unhappily, I kicked at the ground with a rubber-clad foot.

'_He can see straight into my mind. There's nothing I can do to stop it?'_

Probing only worsened it. Instead of raising a defense mechanism it allowed him further in than before.

"_I'm sorry Usagi. For everything; for this. I don't know how to fix it. Perhaps it cannot be fixed because it is not broken."_

'_Not broken! You're in my head and I can't get you out! How is that not broken?'_

"_You're shields proper are functioning aren't they? There's a reason for this."_

'_Reason? Whoever's idea this was cannot possibly possess any.'_

"_Be grateful you can defend yourself."_

'_He sounds like Luna.' _I grumbled to myself.

"_I don't know who Luna is, but I get the impression I should not be flattered."_

'_Shit. Would you get out of my head!'_

"As you wish, Usako." He smiled gently at me. All trace of the little boy was gone. Replaced by Mamoru restored in all his taunting glory. Except for his tone and…

"What did you call me?"

"Usako," he replied simply.

"It's only an improvement," I sighed, "but I'll have you know I belong to myself."

"That's my Usako."

With a huff, I turned to clamber down the trail in the forest. Pines and skeletal trees whispered as I passed. Without the wind it felt almost ten degrees warmer making my ears prickle painfully. Sloshing through icy mud puddles, I was wary of tree roots that would have me landing in them.

"_You have no idea where you're going."_

'_Évidemment,'_ I thought caustically. Obviously

_"Je ne sais pas c'est une bonne idée pour toi être errions seul dans la forêt." _I don't think it's a good idea for you to be wandering in the forest alone.

'_Pourquoi?' _Why?

"_Mon pere est aimé beacoup des loup." _My father was fond of wolves.

"Mamo-Darienwhatever the hell your name is—I swear I will beat you—" Quickly, I turned around, but he wasn't there like I'd expected. Feeling extremely small, I watched for movement through the trees.

'_Wolves don't attack people, not unless they're starving,'_ I thought scornfully. Even so I hoped he'd been joking; I didn't want to encounter a wolf. Deciding to go on, I turned into something solid. Shrieking, I toppled backwards but was grabbed before I could fall.

"No need to worry, you just frightened them all away," he said, sweetly.

"I ought to—"

"Thank me for catching you?"

Inhaling slowly, I tried not to explode.

"You the one who simply walked away." He deadpanned.

My anger dissolved, he had bared his soul to me and I had given him nothing. Tiredly, I looked at him again. Taking in the perused details, the dark cobalt eyes that could change so quickly, the chiseled nose and cheekbones, the unkempt dark hair, the straight mouth, the way he—frankly—towered over me. It was like seeing a new person, but I was too exhausted to react.

"Mamoru," I whispered; hoping somehow that alone would be enough to make him understand.

"Just come with me Usako," was all he said.

We walked side by side for about an hour winding through the woods until we came to an open field. Across the field was a village. By now night had fallen. His form was just a shadow and strangely enough I felt shy. He said nothing, as did I. In the archaic looking streetlamps I noticed that since he'd given his coat to me he was only wearing a half zipped up black sweater over a wrinkled white button down shirt.

"Aren't you freezing?" I asked.

He grinned, showing off his fangs. Once again reminding me he was a vampire, powerful and lethal.

"I would be anyway," he said brushing his hand against my face. Giving a frisson at the frigid contact, I tried not to think too much about the entirety of what being a vampire meant. It was easier to trust him without going into details.

"There's a small café down the street I'm told has good food. Would you like to stop there, or do you want your travel arrangements made at once?"

"Food please," I murmured.

Going back to that blasé penthouse and everyone's disproval was something I thought of with not a little reluctance. I needed to think, or at least resign myself to it.

"Noroc! Ce mai faci?"Romanian greeting A pretty girl around fourteen greeted Mamoru with enthusiasm. This drew who I assumed to be her mother out of the kitchen. They both had dark hair and eyes and spoke very quickly. They exclaimed over him and then moved on to exclaim over me. With trepidation I heard my name rebound back and forth a few times. Awkwardly, I stood frozen while they gestured wildly and hugged me. Mamoru said something that made them laugh and ordered. All of this was in a language I didn't even begin to recognize and I wondered for the first time where 'here' was.

"Where is this?"

"Romania, in the foothills of the Transylvanian Alps. South of Nagyszeben to be exact."

"Transylvania," I repeated and laughed. He smiled ruefully.

"The family has always gone out of its way to remain unnoticed by the local population. Bram certainly didn't help, but it's become easier over the last century with the passing of the worst superstition. My great grandfather brought a lot of Jewish and Roma refugees to the manor during the Second World War. At the time the only way to the manor was the footpath we took today so the Nazi's never found it.

"Around six hundred people stayed there. Another thousand secreted in the Transylvanian Alps were saved. They saw nothing unnatural for the duration of their stay so after the war word spread and we've gained the goodwill of the locals.

"However, one of the Boyash women had the gift of true sight. She recognized my great grandfather for what he was, but knew better than to speak of it. It didn't hurt that she fell in love with and married my grandfather, either. She made the prophecy."

My head jerked up as I recalled what Brook had told me.

'_Long has the Lady lain frozen, _

_Lost her love of light,_

_In the shadows has fallen,_

_The last Child of the Sight,_

_All the seas storm in despair,_

_The Queen of long desire,_

_Has left her court an empty chair,_

_And joined she of the fire,_

_Purity is lost with bitter irony, _

_She walked into the sun,_

_Rather than live in hypocrisy,_

_And thus the fight is left to one._

_Ten thousand years in rising,_

_Ten thousand years to fall,_

_And in the end the Darkness will wake to destroy us all.'_

"The Roma still remember what we did for them and a caravan shows up each summer to maintenance the mansion. This place is owned by the descendents of some of her relatives."

"Did Rei have the sight?" I asked wearily.

"Yes, before she was changed anyway. She refuses to speak of it," he replied, his eyes burning into me.

It made some sense, but it didn't seem to mean anything. The only thing concluded was that the creator of all vampires was about to rise again.

The girl placed a mug of coffee before me and then brought out the food. Mamoru stared out the window rather than eat. My appetite diminished because I knew why; he lived off of blood. Slowly forcing myself to eat, I found myself staring at him. Mamoru continued to stare out the window as if amicably favoring this unconscious caprice of mine. He was—what is the phrase—devastatingly handsome? Better than that really, but the knowledge of what he did to live gave him a brutally realistic edge. A sort of cynical set to his mouth and a dark glimmer to his eyes. Yet he could change into an innocent looking boy so quickly it was unnerving. I didn't know what to think at all so I focused on swallowing. I didn't want to disturb this strange air of cordiality that had involuntarily settled between us. I had enough headaches; this was… surreally refreshing.

He paid for the meal and we walked down the street. It was nine by now and I still hadn't decided on anything. The place was a real small town. No one was out, most of the houses already dark. The air seemed to make its own noise to fill the silence. Something caught my eye. I stopped under a streetlamp and watched the air around me for a moment. Mamoru paused to watch me. My breath frosted but his did not and it disturbed me a little, not as much as it might have though. It came again.

"Mamoru!" I exclaimed happily, "It's snowing!" I spun around in a flatfooted pirouette and laughed as snowflakes landed on my shoulders and sleeves. Mamoru chuckled at the spectacle I was making of myself. Turning I scowled at him.

"You dare to laugh at a Julliard dancer?"

"I dare to laugh at a beautiful girl spinning in the snow."

My face first heated up, and then went cold, before heating up again. It was a very odd sensation but nowhere near as weird as him calling me beautiful.

"Milady Usako?" he teased, offering his arm. Hesitantly, I took it and he spun me around outrageously. We crazily danced under the streetlight to a symphony of snow. When I got cold he stopped and a car was waiting across the street for us. He pulled me against him inside the car and I fell asleep resting against him. My dreams seemed to echo with his voice whispering, '_rest while you can Usako._'


	9. made of glass

Blood on the Moon

Chapter IX

By Lydiby

A broken cry pulled me out of my sleep. Dizzily, I turned to find the source. As my vision began to focus I realized I was still in the car. Mamoru's face was contorted in some nightmare. Sweat beaded along his upper lip. He cried out again and the sound was painful enough to make me shudder.

'_I can't imagine what would cause anyone to make a sound like that,_' was my first thought.

"Mamoru," I called softly, cupping his face in my hands, "Mamoru, wake up. It's a dream, wake up Mamoru." He was caught in it too deeply. Another cry tore from his throat. I cringed; it was _terrible_.

"_The cry of the damned,_" a glacial voice supplied.

I whirled around to look for the speaker, but no one else was in the cab. The driver was in front of the divider and male. The voice had been female somehow.

Wiping the sweat from his face I tried to decide what to do next. One thing came to mind, but it was blush worthy. If it worked, it would be worse. When he began to thrash and made that soul frosting sound again, I decided I didn't care. Leaning forward I moved to kiss him; at that exact moment the chauffer must've hit the breaks and I flew off the seat instead. This effectively woke him so I was content enough; I could already tell that sound would be haunting _my_ dreams. I pulled myself up onto the opposite seat.

"You were having a nightmare," I said. I flickered my gaze to him, intending to look away immediately, but got caught. It was as informative as looking into a fog, but I felt like I was made of glass.

"_Sleep._"

Halting movement woke me and I lifted my head to observe the leather interior of a compact limo. I shook off the disorientation as best I could; hadn't we been on the other side of the car? "We're here," a voice whispered. I shivered with an empty fantasy of waking to that voice every morning. Instead, I was handed out into the cold light of a mid autumn Romanian morning.

"Bucharest," I said softly to myself. Reading what little I could of the signs indicating we were at an airport.

"Our flight leaves at eight," Mamoru said stepping out behind me, "do you want anything before we board? Breakfast, coffee?"

"Maybe some coffee. I am not really hungry," I murmured. I followed him into the building shaking out my wrinkled clothing as we went. I burrowed into the coat, feeling drastically out of place among the moderately large throng of people moving through the buildings to and from terminals.

"Usako?"

"Yes?"

"Are you alright?"

"I guess…Reality is sinking in, but I don't want to face it. Not yet," my voice died away as I spoke, but I've no doubt he heard every inflection in my voice. I was equally sure my face painted an echoing portrait of my emotions.

I couldn't afford to be uncertain about anything. When he bought a German paper I got a lighter inlaid with an ebony rose. While he read I practiced lighter tricks Melinda had taught me one boring Saturday night months ago. Making it a silver blur over my knuckles I thought about her. How whenever she saw me she would sweep down and drag me around swing dancing in circle just for the sake of being silly. How she always had a pack of boys at her feet. Melinda had turned out to be missing as well as Chris, the drummer. Could Mamoru

"He has them, Usako."

The lighter clattered to the floor.

Another set of people I'd failed. Another, how many would the list include? Was I so cursed that I would fail the entire world?

"Usako," he hissed into my ear. His arms were wrapped tightly around me. "If anyone has failed you, it is I. I should have interfered. You've lost four friends to the blood; it is my fault, don't blame yourself."

"Five," I whispered and his arms tightened almost imperceptibly.

"You think so?"

"I hope not," I replied.

"I'll die again before I see you harmed."

Blood pounded in my face. These feelings were old, but completely new. Any other time, any other situation, they'd be welcome, welcome enough. Now I hadn't time to deal. The first roadblock was so utterly insurmountable I couldn't even face the problem. There was no time to be selfish; there was a greater enemy.

"…_Tokyo…"_ out of a long stream of foreign words from a newscaster came one I knew with clarity. My head jerked up as did his to watch the suspended television screen. A shaken broadcast of Tokyo came on, static ripping across the screen as the camera was jostled and knocked about. Smoke rose from various locations, but one thing out of all the images of destruction one truly got to me.

Over Tokyo rose a blood red harvest moon.

"Get me home, now," I gasped out in anguish.

'_How many are already dead? It's hardly begun and how many are already dead?'_ my heart wrenched and next to me I felt Mamoru flinch.

"_Hold onto me. This won't be pleasant," _his mind said unto mine.

It was as though every molecular bond within me had been instantaneously ripped apart and reassembled. It was the most painful millisecond of my life. My stomach's first act upon its regeneration was to revolt. Mamoru held my head still while my body violently wracked upon itself. Gradually it subsided and I sobbed for breath.

"_I'm sorry Usako, I'm so sorry Usako,_" ran Mamoru's frantic voice in my mind. Death was near and the sensation made me want to purge again, for it was not merely death, but macabre. Before me lay Tokyo in ruins. It wasn't clear what building had survived; the smoke was too thick but I thought I saw the Tokyo Tower. The rest of the massive city lay desecrated. My eyes burned with tears. It was similar to images of Hiroshima, only bigger. Smoke rose in columns, funneling into a void. It was difficult to discern exactly what it was, because there was nothing to really been seen. It was such complete blackness that it sucked in the surrounding light, making it impossible to gauge shape or size. After a moment a sickening headache forced me to look away.

Beyond us Mount Fuji rose as implacable as ever and it gave me hope.

"The 'wise men' were called in this morning and gave the order to evacuate the city," said a voice I knew, "The earthquake hit around noon, it was around 8.2 on the Richter," Haruka said as a black cat climbed up me.

"Luna!" I cried, burying my face in her fur.

"Tsukino Usagi, you are not leaving my sight again!" the feline tried to reprimand me, but her voice shook.

"It's an inferno down there, Serena-hime. The senshi are guarding the Imperial Hotel. We set up headquarters bringing in wounded there we've been trying to defend it…" Haruka trailed off, "You can't exactly keep vampires out of where they want to be, Serena."

I sank to my knees at the implications.

"How are they holding out?" I asked weakly.

"I left Setsuna in charge Makoto's powers have been going haywire, we've had some narrow calls. Mostly they've just been gathering across from the Hotel."

"What color are they wearing?" Mamoru's voice cut in.

"White."

Mamoru swore; I stared at my beautiful city, petting Luna with numb hands.

"How many are dead?" I asked, a thousand miles away.

"As little as two thousand, as many as seven," Haruka replied.

I closed my eyes; something inside of me had just woken up, something swift, deadly, and virulent.

"Haruka, return to them. Try to hold off any direct attacks, tell Makoto it will be all right. See that she calms down. I'll be with you shortly," I told her, fury leaking into my voice as I thought of the wrongfully dead.

I was knocked back as two arms were thrown around me and Haruka unceremoniously slammed into me. Luna quickly scrambled onto my shoulder to avoid being crushed.

"We're going to get them, Haruka. No one messes with my people; this is going to end," I whispered.

"I've got to go then, we don't want little Mako-chan to turn herself into one of those meatballs she makes so well," Haruka whispered.

"It's her first time in combat, Haruka"

"I know, Odango, I'll take care of her."

I watched her use her senshi powers to harness the wind to carry her back into Tokyo. Admiring her skill she welded her element with dreamlike detachment; I gathered myself. Wiping away a stray tear, I tried fiercely not to think about Shingo, and Mama, and Papa. What if they were among the dead?

"Usako?"

"Mamo-chan, I—" my mouth went dry as I turned to face him.

Tuxedo Kamen; I was so blind. He was Tuxedo Kamen.

Dazed I only managed, "Why?"

"You had more than enough to deal with," he replied.

There was a brief pause.

"Then can we get down there in a more, comfortable, manner perhaps?" I inquired.

Deep inside of me, around the age of six, something finally snapped. My six-year-old self threw an all out temper tantrum. Kicking and screaming classic phrases such as, "It's not fair!"

It wasn't; my hero whom I'd been forced out of lingering hope to label MIA was still very much In Action. I wanted to deal with this knock for six as I felt like, but we didn't have time. So my six-year-old self threw a wholehearted psychological tantrum.

'I want reparations,' I thought, but nothing was guaranteed.

There wasn't anytime to assess this new fact; I just had to accept it. Later I could analyze it if we won and if we didn't, well it wouldn't matter then, would it? With the latter in mind I gave way to impulse.

"Would you do something for me?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Kiss me," I said bluntly, before logic and fear caught up with me. A slow smile spread across his face, partially hidden by his mask. He removed it and slowly slid his hands around my waist. The contact made me shiver and his eyes were so warm I couldn't move. My heart was pounding erratically and it seemed to be forcing a kind of terror I'd never known before through my veins instead of blood. His head moved down my neck, lazily caressing my jugular. Entranced, I laced my fingers through his hair. Light pressure brushed against my skin and I waited for it to break, holding my breath. Instead his mouth moved to my jaw and then teasingly to the corner of my mouth. The sensation was unbearable. Closing my eyes I brought his mouth to mine.


	10. call of blood

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter X

The moment was over entirely too soon. Entirely too soon, I stood on the roof of Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel, surveying the wreckage I could see through the smoke. Just as Haruka had reported, a group of people clad in pure white stood about two kilometers from the hotel. Watching them for a moment you could tell by their movement they were vampires. They milled about in no order and otherworldly speed. At times their numbers seemed to be around eight hundred, at others two or three.

"That fucking bastard is commanding them," a regal voice pronounced impassively.

"Rei?" I asked, startled. Jerking around, I saw she was wearing a fuku.

She laughed at my shock and for that brief duration everything stopped. My head pounded as I glanced at the void above and/or behind the White army.

"I thought it high time I pledge fealty to my leader."

"Well—" I whispered, "I'm really not much of a leader."

"Cut it, Serena," she murmured with a hint of laughter beneath her natural sophistication.

She touched my brow lightly and knelt before me.

"I, Hino Rei, Princess and Senshi of Mars, renew my dedication to the Princess of the Moon, in life, death, and beyond. Unto eternity so be it."

Her solemn mouth twitched into a grin over the words death and beyond, before returning to a straight line.

"One in spirit, many in heart, strong together, the Senshi will never part. Unto eternity so be it," I replied. When I touched her brow the sigil of Mars blazed. A small light in the darkness of this newly christened battlefield.

"The last time I heard those words, they were from your mother's lips," she muttered, panic in her dark almost-violet eyes. She turned and disappeared before I could demand an explanation.

Despite the evident panic before she left, I noticed something.

'_She's enjoying this._'

"She's a warrior," Tuxedo Kamen said dismissively. Then he added humorously, "and you must understand, at one time Rei was betrothed to Devin."

"No wonder," I laughed, bleakly.

"_Princess Serena_," a poisoned voice whispered, "_the city is mine, but if you want to fight me for it,by all means. My army is dying to meet you_."

'Oh, what wit, Devin,' I thought, 'amazing. How many enemies have I fought? And none of them can even phrase a challenge with finesse.'

"_Finesse_?" the voice asked.

The mob instantly drew into immaculately spaced ranks. I had eight Senshi, not an army of vampires. Drawing a blank, I turned to my Tuxedo Kamen.

'_I need to think about who I'm mocking—but then I was_ _thinking—_" I cut off the thought while I was still ahead.

Taking off one white glove, he conjured one of his roses and stepped to the edge of the roof. He dug the steel tip into the palm of his hand and cupped it. Holding it out beyond the roof the blood overflowed. It dripped down, down, down to the ground. Clutching Luna, I stumbled as a blast of displaced air swept over the roof. Pushing my hair from my face, I discovered the streamers coming out of my 'odango's were suspended in midair. The atmosphere was so electrically charged that I resembled a mad scientist.

'_On second thought_…'

Turning around I had discovered a mass of vampires clad in routine black, covering the roof completely. I was surrounded by Reis—hundreds of Reis—and the multiplicity of her intense aura was pungent, almost overwhelming.

Squeaking involuntarily, I sagged against the wall.

"Hullo, Miss Tsukino, glad to see you again," a pleasant face blonde greeted me. I stared at him.

"Zoisite?" I choked out in disbelief.

"Yes, I believe you've met most of my generals. Zoisite, Nephrite, Malachite, and Jadeite," Tuxedo Kamen smoothly cut in. Except he wasn't wearing a tux anymore, he was pretty damn resplendent in black armor. That is, if you ask me.

Zoisite and Nephrite were clearly human and respectively Malachite and Jadeite vampire.

"Oh-kay," I sighed, wide eyed, "that's a lot of vampires."

"Not enough, Endymion," Malachite said with a cool anger, "Your father let the race go to ruin."

"And there is nothing I can do to change his neglect. Save your anger for where it's needed Malachite," he returned, calmly.

"Endymion," I whispered.

'_The Silver Millennium_.'

The memories washed over me in a warm breeze. Everything came back, my childhood with the Senshi, our training, the rigorous meetings with ambassadors trying to prevent war, the alliance arrangement, Endymion, Beryl, our deaths.

"Oh stars," I gasped as my hands spread my enormous white skirt. The memory of a sword driven through my abdomen made me shudder.

"I killed myself," I whispered. I pressed my hand to the bodice to make sure I wasn't bleeding to death from the wound that I could remember so vividly.

And it had been nothing to the internal wounds I had suffered that day.

"Usako?"

"Mamo-chan, I—I—" stuttering, I looked down at myself and bewildered touched the crescent on my forehead.

I was the princess.

Even with all the memories, it was so hard to believe. All those years I'd spent searching.

Searching for myself!

No wonder we'd never found her. Not under my nose, but _my_ nose!

"You have the Silver Imperial Crystal, Princess Serena," a young voice cut in.

"No Hotaru!" Haruka cried, pushing to the fore of the crowd, "not yet."

"She will know if her time comes, Haruka," another woman said. She was dressed as a senshi, but I didn't know her. Her garnet eyes seemed to hold everything in them, but I didn't have much time to think about this.

I studied the figure that had caused panic in my most impassive senshi. She was a girl-sized vampire. Her black garments stirred as she moved to kneel before me. The black eyes that shined out of her childlike face were the saddest I'd ever seen. The grave contrast of sorrowful wisdom and youthful innocence was a terrible and awesome effect.

"Lady, I am Hotaru Tomoe, Senshi of Saturn and last to come to your aid; may it always be so."

"Hotaru, Setsuna please, Serena doesn't need to know about this _now_," Haruka appealed quickly.

"Haruka, this is not under my jurisdiction," the unknown, majestic Senshi replied gently.

I hesitated a moment as all eyes fell on me.

"I want as few nasty surprises as possible. And Tomoe is the name of the greatest living expert of vampire mythology, or so I thought. Exactly how old are you?" I asked, perplexed.

"Approximately three thousand five hundred and twenty, your majesty, although I have lost track over the last five centuries," she replied.

"Why bother publishing your papers for humans?"

"The human race has ceased to be a puppet state over the last six centuries. It is not for human knowledge, but the endurance of vampire history. As a pattern our nature does not allow a developed independent society (brutality and pride often rule the youngest). Yonder you view them in idiocy, rejecting the true ruler. But wisdom brings strength, and wisdom only comes with passing years, therein lays our history and the folly of humans. How else could our child sovereign wield such power at three years of age? This was not his first lifetime." She gestured to the White army and my Mamo-chan respectively.

I surveyed the White army and seemingly in response they raised a war cry: blood. A chilling death chant. The void rippled and full night descended on the ruins of Tokyo.

"What does Haruka fear?" distantly, I asked.

"That we should fail and I shall be called upon to end all life with the dropping of the Silence Glaive."

Turning my back on the White army, I looked at the army gathered beneath the blood washed moon. It was stained with the blood of those who had already died and only more carnage would follow.

"They are advancing," Jadeite reported.

"To your posts," Endymion commanded.

"Mina, Haruka, you have command," I told them.

In a moment the rooftop was empty, except for Endymion, my Mamo-chan.

"Promise—"

"I'm in no condition to promise anything except that I will always love you, Usako."

I couldn't help it when my eyes flooded. As his lips brushed the tears away, I felt the crystal react within me.  
"I'm leading the charge, Usako. Immortal is no less a misnomer than homo sapient."

"Then I will be next to you."

He looked at me sadly, but I knew he respected me too much to try to stop me. We went into battle hand in hand; as equals.

Rei drew first blood; cleanly severing Devin's head from his body with one fluid blaze of silver. He was not worthy of a death by her hand. As with everything else she did, it was elegant.


	11. love: the darkest requiem

Blood on the Moon

Chapter XI

By Lydiby

Swiftly we understood why the enemy wore white.

Crimson.

The puddle of blood we all stood in as we fought, steamed faintly. A mystery I wasn't going to contemplate if I intended to stay among the living. At one point, in the midst of the hemorrhage I managed to glance back. I saw Hotaru's solitary silhouette against the enormous blood washed moon, the blade of her glaive reflecting burgundy.

As I turned back and released another attack, her voice whispered to me.

'_They will not suffer because of you_.'

Later I would wonder which of two possible meanings she intended. That was not a good time for me.

"Moon Helix REVOLUTION!"

They went down in droves and did not rise again. My attacks contained silver from the imperial crystal. To my left Endymion released Smoking Bombers, blasting them into a gentle rain of misting blood and body fragments.

The fighting shifted like a serpent twisting, turning, and writhing. Macabre screams terrible enough to make you blank out for a dangerous moment shredded the air. A sudden surge drove us apart; furiously I cleared a ring around me with my staff. At some point my Princess gown had become my Sailor fuku, but I hadn't had time to examine the differences. Moving with a grace that seemed to be borrowed, I cut through the fray. Mina closely followed, covering my back and leading three of the other Senshi. My heart clutched up as I glimpsed Endymion on the ground, overshadowed by something that radiated evil powerful enough to sense on a field full of malevolence. As it lunged in for the kill I stabbed another vampire with my staff, trying frantically to reach him. The ground below its feet opened up and closed in the blink of an eye swallowing the thing. Halfway to hysterics I stumbled over to him.

"_Usako, I'm fine. Keep fighting."_

Bracing myself I turned and screamed.

"MOON HELIX REVOLUTION!"

Fueled by my fear, my fury, it cleared more ground then before. But still so many rose to take their place, and I was tiring rapidly. More often then not I was using any physical weapon I could lay my hands on, rather than a senshi attack. It was too difficult to get a clear shot with the front line changing faster then my mind could register. Chaos was rampant and I wasn't certain how I was still alive.

Blood ran down my body, through my hair, beneath my fuku, sticky, warm, and utterly repulsive. It burned when it dripped into my eyes; the taste and scent permeated my senses. Peripherally—as I continued to attack—I worried about my senshi, if I was growing tired they would be struggling. Vampires could move faster than we could see, which meant at times they were moving at the speed of light, it was a marvel they were even alive at this point. Even with the fear, my heart smoldered with pride for them. They were not a burden to Endymion's army.

The tide of fighting brought me to Rei's aid. Two vamps were beginning to overwhelm her. They fought like no others I had come across, with an animalistic ferocity that displayed only a desire for carnage—with no semblance to anything remotely human, no capacity for mercy. Just carnage. No movement they made was for any other reason than to destroy. When they turned away from a wounded Rei, the pair turned on me. Inwardly, I quavered; outwardly, I calmly moved to ward off their incalculable blows. As my staff rammed through the abdomen of one, Rei's blade lopped off the head of the other, stopping a hand's breadth from my own head. The head fell into the blood with a sickening plash, and I clearly saw them for the first time.

'_Melinda and Chris._'

I realized with horror that I had names for these two bodies as they fell. They were almost unrecognizable. Almost; and the changes were too ghastly for words. Acrid bile rose into my throat as I realized what I had done, and what I _must_ do if I wanted to keep my staff. Another vampire was moving towards me; I had no choice. Stepping on Melinda's body, I wrenched my staff free and moved on to destroy the next.

Gradually—as my training and reflexes took over, allowing my mind a minimal of respite—I realized we were no longer advancing, nor were we being driven back. I began to feel as though I had been fighting and killing forever, how long had it been? Twenty minutes? Two thousand years? When would we all be dead? Surely they couldn't keep coming and coming forever.

Or could they?

Automation soon took over and soul-prizing screams fell on deaf ears once again.

Somewhere along the way I became desperate to end it. The coldness tore away everything else. What happened was not certitude, but the power that had slept within me dormant for so long awoke.

There was a flash.

"_My angel_."

He was gone.

Everyone was gone.

Dead, all dead. Unearthly silence reigned.

Blankly, I stared at his peaceful body.

'_My love, did I kill you?_'

He could not answer.

Slowly, I knelt beside him and took his hand. Lacing the limp fingers through mine one last time.

"I loved you as Endymion and we were happy until war destroyed all we knew. I regret the end came so soon. I loved you as Mamoru, though I didn't know it; humans are often silly and trip over life's most precious gifts. I regret I did not choose to see it. I loved you as Darien, but I was too afraid to act upon it. I regret the pain my denial must have caused you. Please forgive me." I whispered brokenly.

A feather fell past my face and I twitched, looking upward for some merciful figure, but no one was alive on this plain of Hades.

Not even me.

The sky was purest black; even the moonlight was fading. Wearily, I looked towards Hotaru, she alone still stood; I had to complete this. Turning back to Endy, my Mamo-chan, I kissed his hand. With the gesture his body crumbled to ashes in seconds. My hand closed around something hard in a feeble attempt to hang onto part of him. The dust partially dissolved into the stagnant blood and partially blew away. All of the cadavers must have disintegrated at the same time because I could not see for the blowing dust borne on a warm wind, swirling upward like an infant cyclone.

'_A holocaust,_' I thought, faintly.

When the wind faded, I cautiously opened my fingers; there was a brilliant golden crystal cradled among the ashes cupped in my small hand. My mouth twitched as if remembering, after so many years, how to smile; if I had this, there was a chance I could bring him back. But as I made my way to what had once been Mina—through the snowfall of ashes— to collect her star seed both crystals vanished. Endy's seemed to turn to mist in my very hand and Mina's faded away to nothing among the tattered remains of her fuku. All of them had vanished.

'_No_,' I thought weakly.

Another feather fluttered downward and I realized what I had missed before; I had wings. How do I describe to you suddenly having more of you than there was before? Having bones, sinews, muscles, nerves, and feathers that were never there before? But all possible joy was obliterated; '_he called me his angel._'

Tears were inadequate.

Several lifetimes' worth of pain and injustice collided and my emotions reacted no differently than the collision of cold front and warm front. With a soul borne fury comparable to the violence of Mother Nature, I walked to and entered the overshadowing void.

I had one last duty to perform.

"_SAILOR COSMOS, SUCH A LOVELY HARVEST OF STAR SEEDS_," the voice was singsong, and vitriolic—like having corrosive acid poured into your ear—at once, "_DO YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH THEM_?"

The voice tried to force me to the ground, but I stood shuddering in agony. Stood in my wavering defiance, fueled by a thundering rage, intense enough that it had to run beneath me. I couldn't contain it. It was beyond human capacity.

I was beginning to wonder if I was human at all.

How could I endure all this? Humans didn't have it naturally in them to devastate hundreds by—even extreme—provocation.

What was I? The question was far beyond matters of living or dead—pure existence.

Existence was the entire question; as my Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen emerged from the endless shadows. (How strange the darkness was, that I could see them so clearly. Like it was a black drop clothe.) They attacked at once. Unflinching, I rammed my Moon Staff into the ground and raised a shield. They're attacks slammed into and washed over it. Fading as they spread over the broad dome. Perversely, it gave me hope. If this new evolution, Sailor Cosmos, could deflect their attacks so simply, could I withstand this—this Thing of prophecies? For a moment I dropped my shields to look at them. They looked little different, but it was as if their pupils had dilated to the point of swallowing their entire eyes.

'_Black_,' I thought, dully, '_my soul must be stained that colour by now_.'

I couldn't try to talk them out of this; I couldn't beg, I couldn't plead. They were puppets, not my friends. I was not going to gain them just to lose them; it was too much.

"_COSMIC LUNARIS_!"

Bitter relief; they were gone, swept from existence.

Not human, no, never human.

With efficient movements, I gathered their star seeds to me and pressed them to my chest. Perhaps I sobbed, I don't know, but they seemed to absorb into me and I felt—more real. Not better, but not…alone. Moving on, I came to a freestanding ornate doorframe that I couldn't see though. Drawing a deep breath ('_my last? It matters not_.') I stepped through.

After so much midnight oppression, my eyes took several minutes to adjust to the dazzling light. Several minutes during which nothing attacked me, or remotely sinister occurred.

"_The Galaxy Culdron,_" the vitriolic voice said. It was still beyond terrible, but now that I could see the speaker, the pain inflicted was less physical and more—empathetic? That didn't make any sense, but I couldn't decide which was worse.

She.

Ladies and gentlemen, the shock of the day is that the solitary most evil being existing in the entire universe is female.

'_How pathetic of me_,' my former self thought, from wherever she'd been buried by…current events, '_all of that and this is what shocks me? A matter of gender? Tell me again, how did I get this far? By getting 30 on Math tests? Sweet delirium don't let this lunacy last much longer. Lunacy, ha…._'

Sailor Galaxia glittered before me. Her title rising in my mind as a bubble trapped within a shipwreck.

"_My Playmates._" She smiled frostily and stepped towards me.

Without any preamble, she thrust her hand into my chest, through skin, muscle, and bone. The sensation was between cardiac arrest and katabatic hell. She withdrew her hand, holding all of the star seeds and I collapsed. On my hands and knees, I watched apathetically as she flung them into the Cauldron. Irrevocably destroying them.

I wondered that I still existed; she couldn't take my star seed as well? I stirred slightly, could I stand? Even if I could I hadn't the slightest idea how to defeat her. I didn't think even a Cosmic Lunaris could destroy the creature I saw before me.

'_The creature, the vampire, the former human, the girl. After all, once she must have been not much different from me_.' I shuddered at the thought but it was curiously stirring. '_What must happen to someone to make them like this?_' I wondered and rapidly hoped I'd never know. Forcing my trembling legs to support me, I stood.

"_You can't win_," she said, it was almost a whisper—if something that makes you wish you did not exist can be a whisper.

I staggered forward, into the Goddess of Death's arms.

"_Yes, that's it, give in, death is the only peace._"

It sounded good. It sounded Very good.

'_The girl,_" I thought, 'S_he was a girl once. She ought to be a girl again._'

With one last heaving breath, I dropped my head to expose my jugular. She bit at once and it hurt, oh it hurt like hell. The burning at some point went from hot to cold. My lungs were freezing, I couldn't breath, and I was dizzying senseless. My life flowed away between her lips. My vision closed in and part of me wailed; it was over.

'_It's only just begun_.'

My heart gave a last weak thump and if I could have I would have smiled.

I was sort of floating. If I had a body I would have danced. She hadn't seen it and that was her salvation. By drinking my blood, she'd put me in her. I was in her blood.

'_First of all, there is no way this girl got loved in her childhood. Or her adolescence. Or her adulthood.'_

I went through her memories and gave the metaphysical equivalent of a wince.

'_Or ever_.'

And that was the moment when I let all the anger and hate die. She had enough hate and anger for the universe. Something else was needed. She was just an accumulation of the worst of human behavior. A child of neglect and abuse.

'_Positively brutal. How did she even live long enough to become undead? _The answer was painfully simple; she'd never known anything else.

"_Well, Galaxia, I love you_!"

I felt myself fading out; I tried to—

_nothing._


	12. what of a circle?

Point of view changes throughout this chapter, but they are self-evident, I think.

Blood on the Moon

Chapter XII

By Lydiby

The ground shook as another aftershock wave hit, but this one was stronger than the previous. Serenity-hime had disappeared into the void almost an hour ago. Hours didn't mean much to me after so many years, but this had been the longest I'd ever known. I knew she was still alive, but I could also see the void expanding. With the second wave in a minute, the moon stopped glowing and the void exploded forward. I lifted the Silence Glaive; Sailor Saturn would fully take over my body in a minute. I was only the vessel for a weapon. The ultimate weapon. Frantically, I searched for Serena, her life force was completely gone, but there was a trace of her left.

'_Is it turning her? Is it completely mindless? Having blood lust, vampiric grace and the Silver Imperial Crystal will enable her to defeat to defeat Chaos.'_

Sailor Saturn submerged again; "_not yet, not yet_," I whispered holding her back with centuries of discipline. I blacked out screaming, "Wait!" The Senshi of Destruction rose in my place.

"Wake up! Oh, please wake up!" someone cried pitifully. Grudgingly, I bestirred myself; the voice was plaintive. It seemed to me I had recently caused a lot of people a great deal of pain and didn't want to hurt anyone else. More stars filled the sky than I had ever seen. But there was no moon. Somehow it bothered me.

"What's wrong?" I whispered, staring at the sky.

"The sun has gone out. Chaos has swallowed it. You have to stop it, Serenity-hime," the childish voice said.

Groaning—hammered was not adequate, I felt like a sixteen wheeler had backed over me multiple times—I levered myself up, but I had been clutching something in my hand and a point on it broke the skin of my palm when I put my weight on it.

"Ouch," I hissed.

When I looked down, of course, I couldn't see anything but after a minute I was holding a glowing crystal. It had only drawn a minimal amount of blood and I realized how force chaos back to where I'd be able to seal it in the galaxy cauldron.

"Sailor Galaxia, Senshi of Hope, shine brightly my friend!" I cried, throwing her into the sky.

At first she was lost among the other stars, but gradually she began to brighten. Gingerly, I flexed my wings and listened for signs of the person who had woken me.

"Hello?" I called softly.

"Here, Serenity-hime," the voice answered as a tiny hand slipped into mine.

"Who are you?"

"Sailor Chibi Chibi," the voice replied with the insistence of a very young child. The light was growing by the minute and I could make out a small girl in fuku, with wings, like me. Wispy ringlets framed her cherubic face and bright blue eyes gazed at me imploringly. My first reaction told me that the last thing I wanted to do was take this child where I was going. But, young or not, she was a senshi.

"Come here, Chibi Chibi," I told her, bending down and opening my arms so she could wrap her arms around my neck. Rising up into the air, I surveyed the retreat of Chaos funneling back into the cauldron. With a tight feeling in my chest, I realized that if I really did this, there would be no chance of reviving the others. But there would be no chance of survival for anyone if I didn't seal the cauldron. And wasn't that what our purpose was? To defend earth, even at the cost of our own lives? We were soldiers; that is what we did. So I had to honor their sacrifice no matter how it hurt me personally to lose them. Tears streamed down my face and I found words tumbling from my mouth. Clumsy in speech, but elegant in meaning.

"I won't ever give up Chibi Chibi, and don't you ever give up either." I choked out. She stared at me for a moment and then in a burst of light I found myself facing…myself.

"I am the future Sailor Cosmos," she said, and then dropped her head in shame, "But I ran away. I thought if I could come back and destroy Chaos once and for all it would change the future. But you have shown me a courage that I had forgotten and I know that no matter what I will go back and finish the battle. Where there is light there must be darkness and where there is darkness there must be light." She kissed me. Then I called on the crystal and let it do what it was meant to.

Power tore through me and I lost all sense of self within it.

Landing on earth I fell asleep and when I woke the sun was shining brightly.

'_Galaxia,_'I thought absently asI squinted up at it.

I was at the base of Mt. Fuji overlooking Tokyo. Tokyo. Completelynormal. Just as it always had been.I was too tired to understand what it meant, except that it was good. Somehow, I made it down to the nearest suburb and made my way to the train station.

The station was packed with refugees, people sitting on suitcases, pets in carriers, and some truly strange objects. Family heirlooms, paintings, vases, even statues, like a living museum. Realizing that getting into Tokyo would be impossible, I found a spot to sit down just outside the doors in a patch of sunlight. Everyone was buzzing chaotically, infringing on my unbalanced state. Wearily, I concentrated and the crystal took shape in my hand.

'_Calm down, be at peace_,' I focused on eliminating the panic around me, '_all is well_.'

The buzzing subsided and I eased the power of the crystal down to a trickle. Finally too tired to even maintain that, I let go. It hadserved its purpose.

"Princess!" a little girl with auburn hair cried. "I'm Kakyuu-hime! I'm a Princess too!"

"Mama!" another girl with pink hair cried in shock.

Wearily, I smiled at her, remembering Shingo when he was small. I wasn't thinking very clearly anymore. I wasn't really thinking at all. She had her hair up a lot like mine and Chibi Chibi's usually was. Except Chibi chibi was Sailor Cosmos and somehow me and had returned to the future to her own battle. Which I trusted was a _damn long time away_.

"Are you alright, Mama?"

I closed my eyes and she and the other girl sat in my lap. I wrapped my arms around them both, feeling so much better. It was warm, I was exhausted and safe.

"Rini? Kakyuu-hime? You know better then to run off like that! Don't do it again!" a female voice scolded.

"Demo, Yaten-chan," Kakyuu whined.

I raised my head to see what Kakyuu's Luna looked like. The young brown haired woman gasped at me and looked like she might fall over.

"Told you we'd find her," she chirruped.

The woman turn and gave an echoing whistle that reminded me of Makoto-chan. I winced, '_Don't think of that._'

My vision blurred and began to fade.

"It's alright, Mama. Sleep."

I did.

Slowly, I stretched out in the sunshine. It was so nice and warm and soft; I would have gone back to sleep if someone hadn't pounced on me.

"Rini!"

"Let her play," I said softly.

My eyes focused on the young girl watching me anxiously. Confused, I brushed a strand of hair out of her face. Her bright red eyes flooded and she buried her face in my neck sobbing. Uncertainly, I wrapped my arms around her and tried to sooth the poor girl. What on earth had upset her?

"Serenity-hime," a new woman said, "I am Sailor Star Healer, Taiki." She bowed formally

"Stop that, everyone calls me Usagi," I said, crossly. I'd just woken up in some strange place, with strange people, and a strange little girl bawling into my shoulder.

"The Queen, Kakyuu-hime's mother sent us to help you establish your court. I'm sorry we were not here sooner. Sailor Star Maker, Yaten and Sailor Star Fighter, Seiya, and I are sworn to protect Kakyuu above all. We only received clearance to land on earth an hour before Rini and Kakyuu found you."

"…Shingo, an Ilkuko-mama an Kenji-papa, day wuz a gowin to leave, but I han't found you, or papa. I was so scared…" the girl went on but, the rest was incoherent.

"Oh, shhhhh," I said, gently. While rubbing her back gently I looked at Taiki, "Her actual name isn't Rini, is it?"

"Serenity, or Small Lady."

"How does she know my family? Who is she?" I whispered.

"The daughter of Neo-Queen Serenity. She's been living with your parents."

'_Neo-Queen..._'

"What do you mean?" I cried.

"She's from the future. Specifically, your future."

"Oh, what, are you kidding me? This makes as much sense as a—a porcupine eating a hotdog at a ballpark," I sputtered, and then looked down at the sobbing pink bundle. The white tank I was sleeping in had become quite wet. Sighing, I propped her up and pulled a fistful of tissues out of a box on the nightstand.

"All right, sweetheart, Small Lady, here now," I said. "Enough of this. It's all over now. Alright, nothing's going to happen to you."

Surprised, she looked up at me and sniffled. I took advantage of it and wiped her nose and eyes. Her red eyes were still watering, so I said, "I promise."

She lunched herself at me in a ferocious hug, which felt wonderful. I looked up to see Taiki edging out of the room.

"Wait a minute," I called, "how long have I been asleep? Do you know where my family is? Where are we?"

Her eyes widened under the barrage.

"Four days, probably moved back into their house, in the Juuban district I believe? And we are in a beach house a few miles south of Tokyo. There is still a tremendous amount of...anarchy in the city, people trying to locate one another, most of the phone lines are jammed, but Seiya found your parents to let them know you were well. They send their love. I think, perhaps they are catching on to your dual identity; there has been a tremendous ruckus in the media about Sailor Moon. We will talk more once you have eaten, there is a bath drawn if you go through that door."

When I stepped out of the bath I was confronted with a full-length mirror. I had lost a terrific amount of weight throughout the last year, my hips jutted out from under my skin and my ribs could be counted. It scared me to see myself like that, so I turned my back only to find two angry pink scars stripping along my spin. It seemed funny, I couldn't remember the wings causing me any pain, but the marks were there.

I pulled a towel around me and found a soft white dress draped over a chair. My throat tightened, my mother must have sent it along with—I searched for the name—Seiya. The dress had been a gift from my father when I had been accepted into the five-year program. He had been so excited, so proud of me; we were just like two little kids running around and shouting. Seeing it here said they were still proud of me, no matter what. I owed them so much, and I had lied to them about so much more.

'_Poor Shingo_,' I thought. He was probably out of his mind. I didn't deserve the brother he had grown into. Slipping it on only made the weight loss seem more extreme; the dress was strapless with a green ribbon tied around an emperor waist. I tied the ribbon as tight as I could and studied my figure in the mirror. I looked anorexic, unattractive, and anemic. Sweeping my long, long silvery hair over my shoulders (there was no point in trying to comb it) I turned away and pushed my new self-images from my mind. Quickly I brushed my teeth with the toothbrush laid out for me and returned to the bedroom where Rini latched onto me once more. I didn't mind at all, I had lost so many people have her to hang onto was a simple and sweet solace. And I didn't think to hard about why she called me Mama or was so attached to a stranger or where she had come from either. For the moment I concentrated only on reversing my weight loss. The girl named Yaten had showed me the patio table out on the deck, set and generous spread in front of me, and left Rini and I alone. I ate slowly, knowing that if I ate too much now I would regret it very soon. Tiredly, I moved to a lounge chair in the morning sunshine and Rini curled up next to me. It seemed I had just drowsed off when a voice broke through the pleasant haze of sleep forming around me.

"Serenity-hime."

When my eyes adjusted I found another girl standing over me. She had black hair and sharp blue eyes that softened a bit when she saw I was awake. Slowly, I made the connections and eased up, trying to shift Rini without waking her.

"You must be Seiya," I said softly.

She nodded slightly.

"Thank you for finding my family. It was very considerate of you to keep them from worrying."

"If you'll forgive my saying so, it would seem that you had best come clean with them about everything as soon as you next see them. They are intelligent people and I expect they would be hurt if the media were the first ones to inform them of your…night job," her lips twisted wryly over her choice of words and I dredged up as best a smile as I could though I'm sure the result was atrocious.

"It seems there will only be a matter of time before you are discovered, but perhaps we can extend that time by keeping you out of public view."

"I would appreciate that, but what I would like most now is to go home," I said carefully.

She paused, seeming to think over her words as carefully as me.

"I'm afraid we would not be as useful to you, though I fully understand your sentiment. I cannot begin to imagine…" she shook her head.

Wearily, I smiled understanding what she was getting at. They were not willing to leave me unguarded and yet were too polite to intrude on my family's hospitality.

"Are you always so formal, where you come from?" I asked, hoping we could dismiss the political jargon.

"No," she replied after a moment's hesitation, "it is just that I have been sent here as an ambassador, a position generally requiring a great deal of formality."

"Well there is no need for it here. I have no court, indeed no kingdom, and although it will be crowded I am sure my mother will be happy to house all of you. I insist," I said cutting off her protest before it left her mouth.

"If you insist," she said looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"I do," I said. Almost happily, if it weren't for the lurking realization that I never would see any of the girls and had lost the love of my _lives_ again.


	13. dark side of the moon

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter XIV

The next few months went on excruciatingly slow. Some days were better and some were awful, but Rini kept me going. She didn't talk much at all and she refused to be separated from me for a long time. As did my parents, coming home was the first time I'd seen my father cry and it frightened me a bit. I began to cry before I managed to explain that I was Sailor Moon. While I babbled endless apologies through a curtain of tears, Shingo whispered, "It's ok."

The certainty in his voice surprised me out of my misery. His brown eyes were filled with a strange compassion.

"You're invincible Sailor Moon," he whispered in my ear. Shocked, I stopped crying completely; I was learning more about my little brother every day.

He took my hand and guided me through everything that was so very difficult to say. I unraveled years' worth of lies. For my parents, I can't say they were shocked, but I can't say they weren't hurt either. There were a lot of tears shed, but more than enough love to make up for it all. It was such a relief to come clean and cry it all out on my mother's shoulder. She listened to everything.

As it turned out that I was right about the Starlights. She liked them instantly and began cleaning out Shingo's old room (Shingo had moved out just a month or so ago), and the guest rooms in the basement. It was crowded, but playing hostess always seemed to give my mother an extra glow. It was a huge comfort to be surrounded by people who loved me all the time. I tried hard to be proud of the friends I had lost instead of sinking into depression.

Several weeks later, I sat in bed with Rini making up a story for her.

"At the very beginning of time, there was a goddess named Selene…" half asleep myself I began murmuring something about the creation of the moon, only to jerk awake.

This wasn't just some story I had made up on the spot. I had memories of places involved with it. Fortunately, Rini was already asleep and I quickly slipped downstairs. Luna was curled up on a newspaper, reading at the kitchen table while my mother finished loading the dishwasher.

"Hi, Mama," I said, softly kissing her on the cheek before sitting at the table with Luna. She closed the machine and looked at the two of us curiously.

"I believe that Taiki and Yaten have gone out for something. I'll be in the living room with Kenji, if you need anything. Goodnight, my princess," she said hugging me.

"Thanks, Mama." Her footsteps faded down the hall.

"What's troubling you Usagi?" Luna asked.

"Luna, do you remember an old legend about Selene creating life—"

"By touching the moon?"

"Uh, yes? I don't…" I tilted my head—trying to get my thoughts to slide around into the order I wanted. "Something's there, I'm remembering, and maybe, it has to do with…with _them_," I finished, the last syllable sliding bittersweet off my tongue.

"You're right about Selene, there was a great spire, a crystal obelisk in the palace grounds. That was our most sacred place."

"Then if there's any chance—"

"Princess…" Luna's voice was pained. I realized I had stood up abruptly and sat again.

"Of course," I whispered, bowing my head.

"It is worth a try, Usagi-hime," Luna purred comfortingly. I scooped her up and hugged her. (I wasn't quite adjusted to the idea of being a princess, so when they wanted to use my title they had taken to calling me Usagi-hime. It kept me from thinking everything I'd ever known of myself was simply void. Such juxtaposition can never be wholly comfortable; I needed time to transition.)

"Let's go talk to Seiya. I don't think I can wait. Not when there is a question unanswered."

"Let's."

A few minutes later we stood in the hall by the door.

"I'll go speak with mama and papa," I said, placing Luna on Seiya's shoulder.

Seiya nodded, "I'll go start the car."

"Mama, Papa," I called nervously. I had lied to them so many times, how could they believe what I was about to say now?

"Yes?" My father turned of the television.

"Seiya and I are going out to find Taiki and Yaten. Then we're going to the moon. There's no trouble, I'm just looking for…something."

"When will you be back?"

"In time for breakfast I think, and maybe," I stopped and drew a deep breath.

"Maybe?" mama prompted.

"There is a very improbable chance that we may have company," I whispered.

The admission made my heart squeeze, I hoped so badly, but I knew the odds. Mama hugged me tight and daddy kissed the top of my head.

"Keep an ear out for Kakyuu and Rini, please."

"Of course."

It wasn't long before the five of us were in the car. Seiya parked at a public beach and we all walked out over the dunes. My hair lashed in the wind; I kept cutting it and it kept growing. I set Luna down and turned to the others.

"Thank you," I said simply.

"Usagi-hime, it's nothing," Taiki said, surprised and sincere.

"Well then…"

Our commands filled the air. Again, I cannot describe having wings. Kneeling I scooped up Luna. As we all soared through the air, I laughed nervously.

"This is so unreal, Luna. It takes a rocket three days and us a few minutes."

"You do realize that the palace isn't on this side," Luna's voice echoed as a sphere-like form enchased us. It was a shield or pocket of oxygen, I suppose.

"I'm not the terrible student I used to be Luna, I've been studying my home." I retrieved a map of the dark side of the moon from where I had folded and tucked it under my collar.

"Lady Moon keeps her secrets well hidden," I said, thoughtfully. My thoughts were wandering back to the day that the moon had ceased to have it's own independent rotation and enough ozone to support life.

From the earth the moon was just waning, so we landed in a strange inky night of deadly cold. A soft glow emitted from the crystal was the only relief. Without the shield spheres we would have been dead of hypothermia before we suffocated. Of course the change of pressure, being instantaneous, would beat the cold. A grimace crossed my face as I thought of that. It was a swift, but ugly death just beyond these transparent spheres.

It was as though we had stepped into a black and white photograph. As my foot touched the ground a joyous multitude shouted in my mind. Within seconds they had faded, but I still felt an unnerving presence.

"Welcome home, Princess," Luna cried, but mixed equally with her pride was sorrow. This was not the homecoming it should have been and Luna took the failure upon herself, although she could do no more to change it than anyone. Gently, I squeezed her, trying for reassurance. Kneeling, I sifted the glacial moon dust through my gloved hands and the ghosts stirred an unnatural breeze across a surface untouched, save for meteors, for more than millennium. As the last pebble fell from my fingers, a shattered obelisk, which lay where it had fallen, tore across my vision. Startled, I pitched forward, falling on my hands and knees, and a cloud rose around me. Disquieted, I watched the particles drift ever-so-slowly to the ground.

"Follow me, please," I said. Pushing off the ground easily and rising well above the plain where we had landed. Now that I knew where I was really going I shot across the black sky. When the ruins at last came in sight a terrible thought made me land abruptly. Another large cloud of dust billowed up around me like a sudden fog.

The palace was just as Beryl had left it. What if all of our bodies lay within, frozen in death? I shuddered, and heard the Starlight land behind Luna and myself.

"I'm not going in there," I whispered. "It ought to be this way," I said, louder. Facing the east, where the twilight eased the oppression of an unrelieved horizon, we all picked our way through the surreal landscape.

Kneeling at the base of the fallen spire, I removed the crystal from its casing. Not knowing quite what to do, I began to silently pray to whatever of the benevolent powers that be who cared to listen. Shamelessly I begged for the rebirth of all who had died fighting chaos. There was nothing elegant or dignified about the grief built up within me. The only response was that the crystal began to shine blindingly, forcing me to continue with my eyes closed.

When there was nothing left to say that I hadn't already, I whispered amen. Immediately the crystal dimmed to the gentler light from earlier. When my eyes cleared the spire was restored, but nothing else had obviously changed. Wearily, I stood to face the Starlights and Luna. Frowning, I realized my apparel had changed into the white princess gown.

"Shall we return then?" Taiki asked, kindly.

"Yes," I sighed. Wishing for nothing more than to seek the oblivion of sleep in my own bed, which I did immediately upon our return.

What seemed like a short time later, someone was shaking my shoulder. Groaning, I swatted at whoever it was.

"Usa, come down and have breakfast." It was Shingo, sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Alright, alright," I mumbled, "you could have let me sleep in a little, it _is_ Sunday."

"Well Mama made this big huge breakfast, and," his breath hitched lightly, "there's something on the news that might cheer you up a little."

"What?" I gasped, bolting upright. His eyes were a little wistful as he looked at me, so I swallowed some of my hope.

"I don't know what it means, Usa," he said, shaking his head, "Here, go down and see for yourself," he handed me my dressing robe, "and don't forget to eat!" he yelled after me. How could I? I thought as I knotted the robe's belt around my waist.

The leaves were beginning to turn outside the kitchen window, but the small television held my rapt attention.

In the heart of a park in downtown Tokyo there was a mysterious crystal spire. It was identical to the one on the moon that I had restored a few hours ago. All through breakfast I cried, but for once I was happy.

I knew what it meant. It meant hope.

It took a lot of convincing to get the Starlights to take me to the park. I was glad my father had already left for work, because between all of them, I probably wouldn't have won the argument. They were clearly worried about something, something they were keeping from me. I didn't care; I wanted to see the obelisk for myself. Quickly I showered and threw on a long white skirt and a grey cardigan over a rose coloured cami.

"Usagi-hime," Luna said, unhappily as I ran down the stairs. Rini tugged at my sleeve, still in her pajamas, so I scooped her up at once.

"Good morning, Small Lady," I laughed, kissing her on the cheek. "And to you, Kakyuu!" I said spotting her sitting on the stairs to the basement. Taiki gave a slightly alarmed cry and picked up her young charge and disappearing down into the basement, towards their rooms.

"Usagi-hime," Luna tried again.

"Yes?" I looked up, and Yaten, and Seiya were standing in front of the door, looking equally unhappy.

"What's the matter?" I asked, a little frightened.

"The spire has already been connected with Sailor Moon, Usagi." It was my mother who answered.

"How?" I demanded, a little angrily.

"They don't know how to explain it, Usagi-hime," said Yaten, "we've been sheltering you, rather a lot," she admitted somewhat wistfully, "The world is catching up. They've connected a lot of things they couldn't explain to Sailor Moon. NASA is in something of an uproar right now; there are conspiracy theories everywhere. The government is set on discovering who you are. Since we are acting in place of your guardians, it's our responsibility that they don't."

"They already have a software program designed specifically for Sailor Moon's identification, all they need some footage of you to match it," Seiya said.

"Then I'll wear dark glasses, and we won't be able to get close anyway. I just want to see it myself, we don't have go near the park," I pleaded desperately.

Shingo shook his head, knowing he couldn't help me with this, and said; "I'll see you at lunch, Usa. I've got to get to class." Everyone shifted uneasily as they considered what I'd said. I handed Rini to my mother with another kiss.

"I'll be home in about an hour. You two have fun, and be good," I told her. She nodded in that funny way of hers that was a little uncomfortably solemn for a child. Using the crystal I made a pair of sunglasses, styled like an American movie star's from the fifties and a scarf, which I held in my hands, thinking about it. Would it be all _too_ obvious? My hair wouldn't fit under it anyway and we'd be far away from whatever surveillance they had. I decided to tie it on anyway, better to increase their suspicions and make it harder for them to learn anything.

The car ride was marked with a very displeased silence. I pulled clips out of my purse and twisted my hair into a large knot at the base of my neck. Then I tied the plain pink scarf on my head. Taiki put the glasses on me with a frown and tugged at the scarf until she was content with it. We pulled up about three blocks away from the park and they let me walk within one. For a minute or two I stared up at it. Rising high above the russet and golden trees in the morning light, to me it was a promise. Then Yaten pulled me back to the car and we drove away, taking a long and detoured way home.

Waiting was never easy, though, and I didn't know how long or what form my answer would take. It helped to know it was there because getting up in the morning was difficult for me.


	14. the starfish

Point of view changes in this chapter again. And The Pillows are the only Japanese band I am at all familiar with, so, there wasn't much choice.

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter XIV

Kakyuu frowned into a red bucket full of seawater and sand.

"Seiya! This isn't a star!" she cried. She picked the creature up and then dropped it with a squeal when it moved.

Rini left her sand castle to look in the bucket too. Usagi smiled wistfully at them. It was grey day, so the beach was almost abandoned except for them. She wouldn't have wanted to come otherwise. The starlights were running out of ways to distract her without taking unnecessary risks.

"Of course it is. It's a starfish," Rini said.

"It doesn't look anything like a star or a fish," Kakyuu retorted accusingly.

"Well, it's not really a fish, but that's what it's called," Seiya said, bending down next to them. She picked the animal up. "See all the suction cups on its arms? There in the middle, that's its mouth."

Kakyuu looked dubiously at Seiya and then back at the starfish.

"Even stranger is that it can lose almost half its body and still survive. Come on, let's put it back."

Mutely, Usagi wondered if she would survive.

Groaning to herself, she leaned back and pushed her chair away from the computer. It was almost two. Rubbing her eyes only made them blur worse. Her client would have to wait; she wouldn't get any farther tonight, not on such a complex code. She had been up all the night before working for one of her less-than-legit customers and only snatched a few hours sleep after delivering the software in the morning. Flicking a strand of blue-washed hair over her shoulder, she reached for a disk and stood. As she moved a great low rumble vibrated through the floor and threw her off balance. The disk skidded and flew across the floor and she threw her arms out the break her fall.

"Oomph," she muttered as her hands smacked against the bare concrete. "What the hell was that?"

Her first thought was an earthquake, but it had been only one big jerk, not a continuous rattling. Uneasily, she pulled herself upright and moved to the sliding door on her small balcony. The city was just as it had ever been. No sign of any disruption as far as she could see. Dazed, she stared out at the lights, thinking somewhere she had lost part of herself and not sure what it was or how to get it back.

Shaking off such a strange thought, she turned to go back inside and turn on the news.

Usagi's temples ached fiercely as she gazed dully out the car window. Recently, she had been suffering numerous headaches, and the only doctor she would agree to see was Dr. Mizuno. This upset the Starlights greatly, because Dr. Mizuno was nigh impossible to get a hold of as she worked in the largest hospital in Tokyo. Ever since the disappearance (and death) of Ami, she had drowned herself in work.

So Usagi closed her eyes, feeling dizzy as the limo the Starlights insisted she use, rolled to a halt at a stoplight. She wasn't used to being driven everywhere all the time. Before she had always walked, taken the bus or subway. It made her feel like she didn't even live here to watch the city from the backseat of a nondescript limo.

"For your safety, please Princess," Taiki-chan said, "we can't always be with you, and it would make us feel so much better."

The three had tried to cancel their tour, but had been unable break the contract they had made with the record label. So they had hired a limo and returned to Tokyo in-between shows.

It had been nearly two month since the events that had razed and revived Tokyo. Usagi tried not to think about all the violence, about what she had done. Nightmares came like clockwork, and the most unexpected things could trigger a flashback. Everything was different now. She had done the unthinkable and she had found that the real power came from within her own heart.

There were days when all she craved was oblivion, but Galaxia had found it within herself, despite all her past, to reciprocate. Galaxia had broken the cycle; she had sacrificed her life. Even if her family had forsaken her, without Rini or the Starlights, Usagi wouldn't have dreamed of throwing Galaxia's gift back in her face. Galaxia had taken Sailor Moon's life and then traded it with her own when she understood her actions. All the forsaken Senshi had ever wanted was a star to call her own, she'd wanted a home. Usagi had had all of that, and more; suicide was unthinkable. So in turn, she had found a way for Galaxia to atone and at the same time realized her wish. Galaxia had allowed Chaos to swallow the sun so now as punishment and reward she would shine in its place. Giving life to the planet she had once terrorized. Someday, perhaps, Usagi would release her and restore her to the ranking of Senshi, when she had repaid her debt. If Usagi didn't have nervous breakdown, trying to suppress her memories. If she did have a full-blown breakdown, she didn't think she _could_ recover.

Now she was going to pick up Rini, and she didn't want to look as bad as she felt. Her daughter worried too much about her. Usagi knew that a child should never have to take care of their parent so she tried very hard to put on a brave show. It was especially tough because Rini spoke very little, which left Usagi with many things to wonder about. For instance, if Rini would be her daughter, then who would be her father? She couldn't ever imagine falling in love with another man, which got her hopes up, which was a dangerous thing. Some days she told her driver just to go past the park, even though she knew the Starlights would be terribly upset if they knew.

As she moved to flip down a mirror from the ceiling, the car began to move again, gently swaying her towards the untouched mini bar. Out the window two people on a sleek motorcycle tore past the limo and disappeared into the cold soggy evening. Sighing slightly to herself (Rain and motorbikes always made her think of Michiru and Huraka.), Usagi pulled some rouge out of her handbag and tried to brush some color into her face. Slowly, she applied subtle makeup, and then returned them to her bag with a click. Smoothing her new dress tiredly, she sat back and rested her eyes. Shingo had bought it for her last week; she tried to be cheerful for him too. Thinking of him made her smile; he was such a goofball. The other week he had brought home a pretty girl named Tomoko. Shingo had been more nervous than Usagi had ever seen him. She could tell he was crazy about her. Tomoko seemed very nice, and had enough tact to change the subject when Usagi answered that she had left school in America because, "events conspired." After dinner Kakyuu and Rini challenged her to a match on Shingo's videogames and the rest of the evening had been spent in an enjoyable competition.

Feeling much more composed, Usagi stepped out of the car and took the umbrella from the chauffer.

"This shouldn't take long, Yukari," she murmured.

"I'm here to pick up Tsukino Rini," Usagi said to the man behind the desk. The man leafed through some papers and frowned.

"She's not on here…I'll go check with her teacher," he said.

Nervously, Usagi sat down in one of the chairs next to the office door. This was unusual, Rini always waited for her just inside the front entrance for Usagi to come in and sign for her. After fidgeting for a few minutes, Usagi heard the clicking of heels coming down the hall and the door swung open.

"You're looking for Tsukino Rini?" A slightly plain woman asked.

"Yes," Usagi said.

"She's not here, are you sure your mother didn't pick her up already?"

"I am her mother," Usagi snapped, "where is my daughter?"

The woman's eyebrows arched as she appraised Usagi's age and thought of the silent eight year-old in her class.

"I don't know, _miss_, I am a teacher, not a babysitter, perhaps her father picked her up?"

Usagi drew back as though slapped and stood up sharply.

"Do not dare to have the impudence to insult me. Not when my daughter, entrusted in your care, is missing," Usagi hissed, her sapphire eyes narrowed into slits. Turning, she slammed out of the office, and pulled her cell phone out of her bag. Shaking with rage and fear, she speed dialed and snapped her umbrella open.

"Rini is missing," she said when the phone was answered, letting her terror show through for the first time, "I went to the school and she wasn't there. They don't know anything."

"What?" It was Yaten, her usually indifferent voice filled with shock, "We'll be there as fast as we can, we'll find her, don't worry Princess."

Usagi sagged into the car and began to cry.

As she opened the door to her apartment, she hummed to herself. It had been a long day running lots of lackey errands for the photography house, but someday it would be worth it. Bouncing into the living room she snapped on the radio and into the kitchenette to raid the fridge.

"…That was Ride on Shooting Star by the Pillows…Just a few minutes ago, in an press conference Yaten and Seiya of the famous trio The Starlights abruptly announced they were canceling their concert this Friday after receiving a mysterious phone call. This is the third concert the trio have cancelled on their most recent tour since last…"

"What!" she shrieked. Jerking her head up inside the fridge, she smacked it hard. Whimpering, she rubbed it and bemoaned how unfair it was that they had cancelled the show she had tickets for.

The first place Usagi went was to the arcade. It only took a few seconds to see that she wasn't there.

"Does Motoki still work here? Is he here?" Usagi urgently asked the boy behind the counter.

"Eh, yes. I think so, back in the office—"

"Thank you." Usagi tore back past the bathrooms and through a door marked 'Authorized Personnel Only.'

"Usagi!" Motoki looked up in surprise. "I haven't seen you in—What's wrong?" he asked, instantly reading her expression.

"I can't find Rini."

"I haven't—" he cut off and looked at her strangely, "Rini? You mean, I mean, I knew she was staying with your family…what's going on?" He trailed off uneasily.

"I need you to help me run a search for her."

"I'll call the police, we can—"

"No, that's not what I mean. Could you close down the arcade? The best way, I can think to explain this, is to show you."

He stared at her, confused out of his mind, but worried enough to listen to whatever she had to say.

"It's only six, but okay. I guess," he muttered.

"Holy crap!"

Usagi ducked her head to hide the painful smile she couldn't help.

"Usagi! What the hell is this?"

"It's our headquarters," she answered, seriously.

"_Our_?"

"Mine, then," she corrected with a sigh. This was going to be a long and painful explanation, but she needed Motoki's help in the same way she had needed Shingo's. Shingo, who would be here as soon as his class got finished, she reminded herself, as well as Yaten, and Seiya. Taiki was flying in from France, where she had been settling their _last_ cancellation with their contractor, on the next flight she could catch.

"Do you remember Chiba Mamoru?" she began.


	15. welcome whispers

Here my love for the manga peers through, if you are familiar enough, you might recognize an ancedote. Note the point of view changes.

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter XV

"It's broken," Usagi whispered. Feeling hopeless, as the screens sputtered static and gave an electrical zap, that sounded very bad, before going blank. Shingo folded her up in a hug as she went limp with disappointment.

"Actually, Usagi," Motoki said gently, "I know someone who could probably fix this. Genius with computers, and won't ask any questions."

"Are you sure?" Seiya pressed, "We can't take any chances with Usagi-hime's security."

"We can call and you can judge for yourselves upstairs."

"No," she yelled. Storming away from her father. He called after her but she ignored him. Why did he always think that an expensive birthday present made up for his always being gone? He wasn't a father; he was a credit card. And she didn't want a credit card. Furious with herself for letting him make her cry she broke into a run. Under a sudden increase in the downpour she ducked into an open gate and huddled beneath a cluster of tall pine trees. Sniffling angrily, she wiped away her tears.

"Granddaughter, what are you running from that has got you all upset?" a weathered voice asked her.

Seiya drove Usagi home and walked her to the door with one arm wrapped around her waist. "We'll find her Usagi, don't worry," she said firmly. Usagi buried herself in Ikuko's arms as Seiya jogged to the car so he would return the arcade in time.

She hated being shuffled around like this, but she understood why it was necessary. Which didn't make her feel any better. She wanted to be out there looking right now, but she couldn't. Shingo had promised to go out with her after they had decided if the programmer could be trusted. For now Luna tried to cheer and reassure her Princess, while Ikuko kept Kakyuu out of sight, baking cookies with the little girl in the kitchen. Worrying about her baby, who in turn, was worrying about her baby. Had she been kidnapped? Why would Small Lady run away? The more she thought of it the more she wanted to change into Sailor Moon and go search, but she knew Luna would tell the others and they would force her to return home. It was ridiculous!

So she sat by the window, watching the rain and the night get darker, waiting for Shingo to return.

Her knees quaked a bit as she stared at the terminal.

'_Terminal_,' she thought sarcastically. A little airplane had her shaking in her boots. But last Thursday she had been hired for a job she couldn't resist and that meant getting on the plane.

"Excuse me," a girl in large dark glasses behind her growled, "will you or won't you be getting on the plane? You are holding up people with more important agendas."

"Shove it," she snapped back. She fingered her ticket in her pocket, and then took it out.

"Welcome to—" the flight attendant's beaming face faltered as she met her towering scowl. It was a good thing she had packed her own food, because it was going to be a long flight.

Shingo got home around eleven. By then it was completely dark out side, if Luna or my mother had any control we wouldn't have gone. Yaten and Seiya were both still working with the programmer, whom Shingo seemed very pleased with. So we went. I knew we had as little chance finding Rini running around as sitting at home, but I couldn't stand waiting anymore. I was starting to get angry with everyone tiptoeing around me as though I were made of glass. Even if I were somewhat shattered, I had sealed chaos after all! In the process, I had lost nearly everyone I held dear, which made finding Rini even more important. I packed a backpack full of blankets and placed Luna on top them where she could peer out without getting wet. Shingo took my hand and we stepped out into the darkness together.

Small Lady. Rini was my daughter, and now she was gone. I couldn't believe that anything had happened to her. She had to have seen something, someone she knew. A few blocks away from our house I stopped and handed Shingo the backpack with Luna in it.

"Serenity what do you think you're doing?" Luna's voice was muffled, but still enraged.

"What I should have done when I first found out she had run off. Shingo, you might as well go home, you said it yourself before..." I smiled a little before transforming. After the split second had passed, Shingo swept me up in a hug and spun me around, laughing.

"You're invincible Sailor Moon!" he shouted to the deserted street.

Surprised by his reaction, I laughed a little.

"You should be indoors, young man," I reprimanded him in my best superhero voice, "It's not safe to be out alone this time of night."

Stretching again on my toes I messed his hair.

"Well, isn't this a reversal of stereotypes," he muttered dryly, coaxing another laugh out of me.

"I'll see you in the morning then."

He pulled me into another hug, and then said roughly, "be careful Usagi, please be careful."

"Of course," I said to my little brother.

Luna's shrill cries echoed after me, ordering me not to go anywhere.

The rain stopped soon after midnight, and then it was just plain cold. Systematically, I made my way across rooftops, careful to cover as much ground as possible. Standing four blocks away from the spire, I stared at it. What if she were in there? We hadn't told her about it, but she had probably heard about it somewhere. What if that mysterious child of mine knew something I had yet to remember? Much was possible that_science_ could not explain, let alone me! If she were truly from the future (and there was no other explaination), even more than I imagined was possible. Eventually, I slipped away, knowing the Starlights would be furious enough without my blowing my cover (and theirs as well).

As I crossed districts, I noticed a shrine.One of the marvelous oddities of this city, the amalgamation of modern urbanism and relics ofancient empire. Examining it made it clear what had caught my eye. Behind the central building glowed a large bonfire. Curious, I jumped down into an empty alleyway where I released my transformation before heading up the hill towards it. It was sometime just after five a.m., the gates were opened the smell of incense wafting along the steps. When I peered around back, the fire dazzled my eyes and for a moment I could see nothing. When my vision cleared I saw a girl standing before it, dressed in formal priestess robes, her head bowed and a curtain of long black hair concealing her face.

But I knew who she was; her posture alone gave her away.

"Rei," I whispered hoarsely. The ebony hair flew back and her amethyst eyes met mine with a physical jolt of shock.

"Unto eternity so be it," she whispered. Then grinned, her old grin, before my vision blurred again.

When I had calmed down, which took me the greater part of two hours, I had enough presence of mind to call my brother and let him know I was fine. More than fine.He came over at once.

"I think it's only fair, Serenity, to tell you that your brother has the sight," Rei said gravely, just as soon as they'd been introduced. Shingo turned bright red and muttered something before swiftly ducking his head.

"You knew _from the very beginning_, didn't you? You _little_ squirt!" I said, amazed. I forced his chin up so he had to look at me.

"Usagi-" he stammered, I smiled at him tiredly.

"I wish you would have come to me about it," I whispered, rather hurt.

"I k-know, and I was always so proud of you, but I was scared. I just wanted to pretend everything was normal. And then when you got into college I thought you'd be safe. But Rini showed up at our door this summer and fit into our family so easily, I knew something must have been up. When I ran into you, I knew you were lying and I knew there was nothing I could do. Something terrible had caught up to you and—and forgive me, please.

"Iknow you wanted someone to share your burden with. I've done what I could to help. The way things are now…"

"No, I'm sorry Shingo, I lied to you and mama and papa for years. You shouldn't have had to worry about me. You should have had a normal childhood."

"Let's both put it behind us, big sister. You're alive, and that you survived that Thing is all I care about; I thought that night would be the last time I ever saw you."

The three of us took the subway home. When I had changed into my pajamas I slipped down into the den and curled up on the sofa next to Rei. The Starlights had gone to the arcade again after nearly murdering me that afternoon. They were hopeful that they would have the system operating by tomorrow morning. Shingo was snoring in a recliner across the room, his head at an unlikely angle. We talked late into the night. About how Rei had mysteriously acquired a new life, too, but mostly about the past and future.

"I'm terrified of whatever's happened to Rini, and…I miss him so much," I whispered my confessions. She nodded and pulled my head down onto a pillow in her lap. Gently, she weaved her fingers through my hair and arranged it soothingly. I watched Shingo and remembered things for a long moment.

"As we were coming back, coming here, I fell asleep in the car. He must have fallen asleep too; I woke up to him screaming in his dreams. But I fell back asleep and forgot when I woke again."

Rei didn't respond to what I'd said immediately.

"Vampires don't need sleep; it can be dangerous. But I guess it is not surprising that he would let his guard down with you," she replied at length.

"So many things now are making more and more sense. Do you remember that night I saved you from Devin? I brought you to one of my soirées. I didn't know whom you were the first time I saw you, but there was an inner brilliance to you that drew me. He was furious with me. I didn't know him very well then, but I knew that he was gone already. Completely head over heels and not a clue how to show it!" She shook her head with a ruefulgrin, "And I knew he'd never change you. Making you his queen would have given both of you power—it may have kept us by your side a little longer. People think we are (we were?) damned."

She gently reach up to touch her normal canines as she said this. Even though she was human now, she still had the same imperial presence.It didn't bother me anymore.

"I know nothing more of either heaven or hell than I ever did, but he would never have risked it. You were purity to him, and he wasn't willing to taint you to save his own life.

"That's real power, Usagi, and if that power doesn't bring him back to you, I will be very surprised," Rei finished, lovingly.

By now I was weeping quietly.

"I'm afraid to hope," I confessed.

"Don't ever give up," she whispered my own words back to me and I halted my tears.

"Thank you Rei," I whispered through a knotted throat.

She lifted me up and dried my face before hugging me.

"You are my best friend, my sister and my princess. I hate to see you miserable, but I understand. This is true love, and it's worth fighting for."


	16. promises

Second to last...

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter XVI

The next morning was a rare good one. The genius was all that Motoki had promised. Taiki burst in, while I picked at breakfast, to tell me in person that the system was working! I was so utterly relieved that I demanded to meet the technician myself. There were several hours of work yet to be done. The Starlights didn't want me to be in anyway affiliated with this incase the money they were paying turned to be not enough incentive for the programmer to keep silent.

A few soft words through the phone from Rei did what nearly an hour of me shouting into the receiver could not. As it was, Taiki ran out and bought me an expensive creamy coloured business suit and dressed me up in it before she let me step out of the house. They had at last conceded to say that their CEO wanted to thank her in person. I almost laughed. It would be ready by the time I got there.

Motoki greeted me at the door with a hug. Rei and Shingo flanked my shoulders and Taiki led, making me truly look the part.

After a moment the crackle of a welder stopped. A bit more shuffling and a masked head swung into view. A gloved hand tipped it back, and my heart momentarily ceased.

"Ami!"

"Excuse me?" She looked at me bewildered.

"I'm sorry," I stuttered realizing she truly didn't recognize me. Hastily, I created a clumsy lie, "For a moment, I thought you were someone else…I can't tell you how much I appreciate this."

I struggled to compose myself, and with Rei's hand resting on my shoulder, I extended my hand to the young woman.

"Just doing my job," she shrugged, awkwardly taking it. I fleetingly realized it was a primarily American gesture.

"But I have to say, things like this are why I love it," she continued, giving me a bit of hope, "I've never seen anything like this before, and I've seen a lot of advanced systems..."

"Is it ready?" I asked, anxious. My heart pounded violently in my chest. Would Ami remember like Rei had? Did it mean that the rest of my Senshi would resurface soon as well? Was Rini safe? My knees quaked involentarily.

"Oh, yes," she replied, and cast a brief smile over her shoulder. She plugged in an enormous set of cords and typed at various pads for a moment. Then the entire room whirred to life, screens of color, maps, and programs. It was several moments before I noticed how stiff she had gone. Then I knew.

My Ami-chan was back.

They had traced Rini within moments. I didn't think I could ever forgive them for making me stay behind, but when I had my child back in my arms it didn't matter anymore.

She had been in the park. Like I'd suspected. Everything was going to fall to pieces in a matter of days, maybe even hours. The fact that the area had been quarantined was the only reason that the government hadn't swept her away. Once she had gotten in, there was no way for her to get out without being caught by the military guards. They had gotten ample footage of my guardians while rescuing Small Lady. Ami hadn't stopped hacking from the moment she returned. Frantically trying to disrupt the images. Yaten broke into the school Rini had been attending and destroyed all record of her. It wouldn't stop anyone from talking ifasked, but at least it would only be talk. Kenji-papa and Shingo were moving our most valued possessions carload by carload to headquarters, preparing for the worst. If we were discovered, we would be ready.

"Usagi-hime."

"Yes, Luna?" I asked her. Rini had been overwrought and only just fallen asleep in my arms.

"Setsuna wishes to speak with you."

"Setsuna?" I frowned. "She was there wasn't she? Before the battle began."

I began to take deep breaths; afraid the flashbacks would start again.

"Yes," Luna said, and then hesitated, "She is the ninth scout, Senshi of Pluto, daughter of Chronos and the guardian of time. That is why you have not meet her properly before."

As she finished speaking the woman in question entered with Rei and approached. Setsuna was a lovely creature; I thought of Michiru for a moment and held back a few stray tears.

"Serenity-hime," she greeted me with my formal name, "Normally, I am not permitted to intervene, but since Small Lady has been stranded here, some recourses must be made."

"I don't understand," I said.

"Serenity-hime, Small Lady is from the future. She is your future daughter. When she ran away she did what she had to. If she loses her father, she will cease to exist."

"What?" I cried. Frightened, I held the girl tighter to me.

"There is no need to be alarmed. If he were dead she would not be here."

Several minutes passed before the implications sunk in. Rini was my daughter, and I never would love another man, and her father…

For a moment I was too frightened to speak.

"Mamo-chan?" I whispered.

Setsuna nodded.


	17. meeting destiny

The final chapter…

Blood on the Moon

By Lydiby

Chapter XVII

Today was my birthday. Rei, Ami, and the Starlights agreed to let me go shopping. It had been nearly a month since Setsuna's revelation and the Starlights had returned to tour for most of it. Setsuna's reassurances had been vague. She hadn't been able to say when or where anyone was now, but she did tell me that everyone had been restored. They might be scattered across the world, living newly created lives, half in shadow from remembering something of us. Remembering that maybethis wasn't how it had always been. Even if they thought it was only a feeling. Maybe those feelings would guide them back to us; hopefully the computers would help us meet them halfway.

They were alive. For now that was enough. I could wait, so long as I _knew_.

There was still a tremendous shadow hanging over us from the governments and other groups seeking the identities of the Senshi. Ami was not pleased with the amount of information the government had retained from the raid. But so far they had not discovered us. We were not followed, our phone lines were clean, and gradually the newspapers went back to reporting duller things.

Today I was twenty-one. Sipping at a chocolate shake from the arcade, I watched Rini twirl in her new dress and smiled. We went shopping, in all the old stores Mina and used to haunt, and tonight my family and I would go to a fancy restaurant, the kind Makoto would have appreciated. My father had given me a pair of beautiful pearl earrings. Mother and Rei together had chosen an exquisite kimono and Ami had bought me tickets to a ballet later that week. That she was hopeful in her search for the remaining missing Senshi, was honestly enough for me. I was overjoyed at the thought of being reunited, although she was notably silent about Endymoin.

The Starlights were still holding out on their surprise until this evening. Shingo, on a student's budget, had bought me a pair of antique jade hair combs. I had been speechless, and put them in my hair at once. They went nicely with my old white dress. We walked together, a more cheerful group then we had been in months. Today would be a day to celebrate memories.

For lunch we'd had a picnic in a park. Kakyuu and Rini played on the swings; the six of us talked about inconsequential things, the Starlights shared humorous stories from their tour. It was an ideal afternoon.

Minus a few people, but I shoved such thoughts from my mind.

'_Look at all they're doing! Trying to make you happy!_' I told myself not to be ungrateful. Stretched out in the sunshine with good food and good friends on a beautiful day. How could I be unhappy? We all relaxed as the afternoon wore on.

To Rei's adorable astonishment Kakyuu had climbed into her lap and fallen asleep. Standing, I walked over to where Rini was still swinging. She was humming a familiar song, when she saw me she jumped off and ran up to me. Smiling again, as she hugged me.

"Mama, I have present for you," she said.

"Oh?"

"Well…" she said, "It's not just from me," she admitted. I smiled imagining her going to Ikuko-mama or Shingo for help. "Here."

It was a small rounded irregular package wrapped up in newspaper, and she had tied a pink ribbon around it. I was surprised by how heavy it was for only being the size of my palm.

It was a star shaped locket.

"Where did you get this?" I asked her in disbelief. Endymoin had given it to me lifetimes ago.

"From Papa." The world stopped spinning and I sat down hard. 'From Papa,' in the future or the present? My heart beat wildly, painfully.

"I'm going to have to go home soon, Setsuna says…do you like it?"

"I love it," I told her, holding her tightly in one arm and staring down at the locket in my other hand. After a moment I pulled myself together.

"Thank you Small Lady. Thank you so much. Let's go home now." I brushed her hair back and smiled at her. She nodded.

"We have to get ready!"

I wondered if she was talking about dinner.

"You're not going to be a _Small_ Lady much longer," I said looking at her in a new kimono we had bought that day. She giggled; she was trying very hard to be ladylike. I knew how excited she was to be allowed to come with us. Tonight would just be Mama, Papa, Shingo, Rini and me. Small Lady sat on the bed tapping the toes of her new sandals together; watching as Rei carefully did my hair. I, in turn, watched her through the mirror on my bureau. Carefully, I put on the pearl earrings, and tucked the locket safely into my obi as Rei made final adjustments to the ornaments in my hair. I stared at myself. I had changed so much, yet…there I was.

Sometimes Sailor Moon, sometimes a Princess, yet always still Usagi.

A knock on the door interrupted my reverie.

"Serenity-hime." It was Kakyuu, holding a wooden box with beautiful inlays, the Starlights stood behind her.

"Yes?" I answered the young girl, twisting around carefully in the kimono.

"My mother and I present you with this gift in honor of Your Highness's twenty-first birthday. We congratulate you on reaching your majority and wish you many happy returns," she said carefully.

"I thank you both," I said carefully in return and took the box.

Immediately, she was a normal little girl again. "Open it. Open it!"

I laughed, but immediately stopped once I raised the lid. The sight took my breath away.

My majority. Luna and I had spoken of it, but she hadn't been as thorough as she would have been. Luna knew, maybe better than anyone, where I was most fragile. She knew I wouldn't want to think about the future. Wouldn't want to think about becoming queen and all the responsibility it would entail, not without Mamoru by my side. Eventually, I would have to face it, and I would be strong, I knew. Setsuna had said, so I would be content with her promise.

Tearing my eyes away, I looked up at Kakyuu and gave her the most genuine smile I could find.

"Thank you," I said again.

"May I?" Ami asked, kneeling before me.

"Ami," I cried, "do you want me to ruin all this makeup? Rei spent so much time on it." I held my eyes wide to keep them from watering. She chuckled a little. "I can't wear it now," I said, nervously gazing down at it again.

"Not to the restaurant, no," she agreed with a whimsical smile, "but Shingo is downstairs with a camera and I know all of us would love to see you wear it."

"Of course," I said, looking up at everyone with a firm nod. I hadn't meant to frighten them by refusing or slight the gesture.

Ami carefully lifted the resplendent coronet and placed it on my head.

It's something I'll never forget.

Shingo must have taken a thousand pictures of me. The only way I could convince him to get out from behind the camera was to convince him I wanted pictures with him, too. We might never have left if I hadn't. Mama had to redo her makeup. Ami carefully removed the tiara and placed it safely back in the box. I closed it wistfully and said goodnight to all the girls. They wished me happy birthday one more time.

It was the best birthday I'd ever had, and I didn't hesitate to tell them. It was wonderful. Even with that moment in the restaurant when I saw a young man in a tuxedo, and for that moment it was he. I stepped forward and open my mouth to call out his name. Then the man turned around and it was a stranger.

Small Lady squeezed my hand and I looked down at her wonderingly. Tonight she was extra possessive. We smiled together and then everything was wonderful again.

When at last we were leaving the restaurant she pulled me down to her level and held me really tight. I lifted her up in the air.

"I've had a wonderful time tonight. I love you, you know that right?" I told her, sensing something else was up. She nodded and I set her down. Quickly, she kissed me on the cheek.

"I have to go home now. I love you Mama," Rini said. Without any more explanation she lifted up her kimono and ran off.

"Small Lady, wait!" I yelled, shocked. I heard my family call too, but I had already picked up my skirts and was chasing after her. Rini had a large lead; I was just in time to see her disappear down the steps into the subway. By the time I had gotten down the stairs it was empty. In silent resignation I bowed my head, caught my breath and eased away my desire to cry.

She had gone home.

'_You knew should would. She had to,_' I told myself and took out the locket she had given me.

Promises.

Paper whispers filled the subway.

"Usako," a voice whispered. A voice I only heard in my dreams. Slowly, frightened, I looked up.

"Mamo-chan," I gasped. Reaching out, I stepped forward. He reached his hand out to meet me, but terrified, I jerked back. What if—what if he wasn't really there? A painful look crossed his face quickly, hurting me as much as him. I wanted to ask for forgiveness.

"Just, just give me a minute," I gasped out, trying not to cry. Drinking in the gorgeous sight of him. The way his hair fell into his eyes, oh god. Could he forgive me for denying him, denying us?

"Usako, I love you," two tears cascaded over the edge of my eyes, "and we're not perfect. Not even you are perfect Usako, and that just means we're human." He sucked in a ragged breath. "You are the most beautiful person I've ever met and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. That's all I've ever wanted."

Now I was really crying.

"Mamo-chan, I'm so afraid. You don't understand. Just please, please tell me you're not going away. Promise me," I begged, tears streaming down my face, "Tell me you're really there."

"I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere without you. I promise."

"I love you," I whispered, and stepped forward. Another step, and then another, and my hand was in his, solid, warm, and absolutely real.

"I love you, I love you, I love you," I said, as he pulled me into his arms. He wiped away my tears and kissed me senseless.

The End.

I wanted a reunion for Mamoru and Usagi so that you could be sure that they did get their happy ending. Yet I wanted to leave it open ended. That way you can think what you'd like to think and there is nothing to say you are wrong. I hope you find this a satisfactory conclusion; I'd be delighted to hear what you think, about this or any other part of the story. I never expected to be so sad about finishing this; no more wild rushes of inspiration, no more encouraging and interesting reviews, what am I going to do? I hope you've enjoyed it, it was a pleasure writing for all of you and receiving you feedback. Thank you—Lydiby. March 24, 2005


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